No one believed it': how a YouTube video accidentally proved Libya's sand cat really does exist

[littlemissmartypants]

Wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir had no idea what he had found until scientists started to get in touch

Amr Fathallah in Tripoli.
Photographs by Mohammed Almuntasir
Wed 24 Jun 2026 07.00 EDT

When wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded 18 seconds of footage to YouTube, he thought little more about the small, pale cat seen digging a hollow in the sand in the remote dunes of south-west Libya.

The video, however, posted in 2017, turned out to be the first material evidence that the sand cat (Felis margarita), the world’s only felid adapted to true desert conditions, existed in the country.

“When I posted it, nobody believed it had been filmed in Libya,” he said. “Everyone denied it, but I kept insisting that the cat is here, in several places; one of them was only 70km (43 miles) from Zintan, where I live.”

Nearly a decade later there is increasing evidence that this was not just one sand cat but that south-western Libya may represent a previously unrecognised stronghold for the species. The sand cat is no bigger than a domestic cat and its sandy colour means it is almost impossible to spot in the terrain it inhabits, earning it the nickname “ghost of the desert”.
Snip...much more...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/24/youtube-video-proved-libya-sand-cat-exist-aoe

😻

[Ocelot II]

1. Sand cats are ridiculously adorable.

[hlthe2b]

2. That is cool. I wonder what other neighboring desert countries it might exist in...(e.g., Egypt)

Given Ancient Egypt had a true worship of cats, one might wonder if some of those might have existed at the time, been related to cats that did, or perhaps hieroglyphs exist that reflect on their possible existence.

[Ocelot II]

5. They're in lots of desert countries, including Egypt.

The first sand cat known to scientists was discovered in the Algerian Sahara and described in 1858. To date, it has been recorded in several disjunct locations in Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Niger, Chad, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In Central Asia, it was first recorded in the Karakum Desert in 1925. The large gap between these two regions of its global range was partially closed in 1948, when a sand cat skin was found in an oasis of the Rub' al Khali in Oman. It is discontinuously distributed in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In the early 1970s, sand cats were caught in southwestern Pakistan and exported to zoos worldwide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_cat

[StarryNite]

3. Fascinating!

I love this. Adorable kitty!

[dem4decades]

4. Cute little bugger.

[chouchou]

6. I like the name "Scat"

Very cool cat.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. I would adopt one, but...

I'm pretty sure they are used to a biiiiiiiiiiggg litter box.