{"id":307589,"date":"2026-03-01T06:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/307589\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T06:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:26:09","slug":"scientists-tracked-6-ghosts-of-the-desert-through-the-saudi-arabian-wilderness-this-is-what-they-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/307589\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists tracked 6 \u2018ghosts of the desert\u2019 through the Saudi Arabian wilderness. This is what they found"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the world\u2019s smallest wild felines has been studied using GPS tracking collars for the first time, revealing new details of their secret lives.<\/p>\n

Scientists in Saudi Arabia fitted collars to six sand cats, the only cat to live all year round in a desert environment, in the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Royal Reserve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTracking data show that individuals travel considerable distances at night [the species is strictly nocturnal], on average 6km, with one individual ranging almost 9km a night,\u201d says reserve CEO Andrew Zaloumis.<\/p>\n

“Males appear to hold large, sometimes overlapping territories, while females use multiple dens across wide areas,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Sand cats are found in and around North Africa\u2019s Sahara Desert, parts of the Arabian Peninsula and into Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, some of the hottest<\/a> and driest regions on the planet. Small rodents are their primary prey but there are records of them hunting birds such as desert larks and small reptiles such as geckos and even snakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Known in Bedouin folklore as the \u2018ghosts of the desert\u2019, sand cats leave no tracks because of their fur-covered foot pads and have a distinctive avoidance behaviour which involves crouching low and closing their eyes when a light is shone on them, making it harder to pick them out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SandA sand cat keeps watch beside its den. Credit: Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve<\/p>\n

The study also carried out analysis of the sand cat\u2019s genome that has reinforced recent thinking that there are two subspecies, rather than four as previously understood, and revealed relatively low genetic variation in the reserve\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a wide-ranging desert carnivore, this highlights the importance of connectivity,\u201d says Zaloumis. \u201cLarge landscapes alone do not guarantee long-term resilience if populations remain isolated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ReserveReserve ecologists monitor a collared sand cat. Credit: Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve<\/p>\n

Previous research carried out further south in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Empty Quarter using camera-traps generated 1,500 images of the species distributed across an area of 2,400km2. It found sand cats using all the major habitats, including sand dunes, interdunal gravel valleys and escarpment plateaus.<\/p>\n

Sand cats are uniquely adapted for desert life<\/a>. They obtain all the water they need from what they eat, and their large ears enable them to detect the faint sounds of rodents, reptiles and even insects moving beneath the surface of the sand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the face of climate change and desertification, it is an important indicator of how biodiversity can persist or fail in rapidly changing extreme environments,\u201d says the reserve.<\/p>\n

\"SandThe sand cat is one of the world\u2019s smallest wild felines. Credit: Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve<\/p>\n

Top image: sand cat. Credit: Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve<\/p>\n

More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the world\u2019s smallest wild felines has been studied using GPS tracking collars for the first time,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-307589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}