Sand Cat
Sand Cat
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| スナネコ | |||
| Character Data | |||
| AKA | Sand Dune Cat
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| Romaji | Suna Neko
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| Debut | Kemono Friends (2015 Game) | ||
| Animal Data | |||
| Scientific Name | Felis margarita
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| Distribution | Saharan Desert, Middle East, Eurasian Steppes
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| Diet | Carnivore
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| Avg. Lifespan | Up to 13 Years
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| Read More | Sand cat
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| Conservation | 
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| Sand Cat | Anime | Season 2 | Festival (Costume) | Pavilion | KF3 (V2) | Kingdom | Nexon Game | Gallery |
“Because I'm being called the Desert's Angel, please entrust me to do the job. It's really hot during the day but once you use to it, surprisingly, living in the desert is not bad. If we're going to live together,I will take care of you. Let me bring you the dish I'm proud of okay?♪”
—Sand Cat's introduction
The Sand Cat is a type of feline Friend that made appearances in both the Kemono Friends anime and original mobile game.
Appearance
Sand cat has large triangular cat ears, short sand-yellow hair with dark highlights to emulate the facial features of the sand cat animal, and yellow-green eyes. She has a large sand-yellow collared bow with grey striping, white sleeveless dress top, and elbow length gloves with yellow at the palms fading to white at the forearm and black sand cat patterning at the top of the gloves. She has a grey-striped high waist skirt with white petticoats underneath, a large grey striped bow at the rear of her skirt, and a long tail with black rings and black tip. She has sand yellow and grey striped socks with sand yellow shoes.
Series Appearances
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In Real Life
The Sand cats live in three distinct regions of the world: Africa's Sahara desert, the Arabian Peninsula, and Central Asia. Sand cats prefer a very dry, arid habitat with little vegetation, for which they are well adapted. This species prefers flat or rolling terrains, and will retreat to burrows when temperatures become too extreme. Due to the importance of burrowing and digging to sand cats, they are not found in areas where soil is compacted.
Sand cats eat primarily small rodents, occasionally hares, birds, spiders, insects and reptiles. They are fearless snake hunters—their prey can include venomous vipers and other snakes. Sand cats hunt by skulking close to the ground and using their enhanced sense of hearing to detect prey. Sounds of a potential meal burrowing underneath the ground trigger sand cats to begin digging rapidly to expose and capture prey. Like many desert-dwelling species, sand cats can survive without drinking water for weeks at a time.
Primarily a nocturnal animal, they spend the hot daylight hours in a shallow burrow dug into a dune or beneath a shrub. They use and enlarge burrows of other species, as well as digging their own. They have occasionally been observed above ground in daylight near their burrows, lying on their backs in a posture to shed internal heat.
Trivia
- From 2002 to 2016, the Sand cat was listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, due to a decline in population. It has since then been listed as Least Concern, but their current distribution and population size is not well understood.
References
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/sand-cat
https://wildcatconservation.org/wild-cats/africa/sand-cat/