A pair of highly rare sand cats welcomed five kittens at the Ramat Gan Safari Park recently, the zoo announced Monday.
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Globally recognized as endangered, sand cats are found mostly in isolated deserts in Africa and Asia. There are only about 10,000 of them left in the wild and another 178 in zoos – 183 counting the newest edition. According to the Safari, the happy birth brings the number of Israeli sand cats to seven.
Mother Sabiyah and father Marib both came to Israel from zoos in France and Sweden, respectively. Zookeepers had hoped the romance between the two would blossom into a family, and were overjoyed to learn that Sabiyah was pregnant, the Safari said.
Giving birth to a litter of five live kittens is rare for sand cats. Caregivers were careful to keep their distance, allowing the proud feline mother to tend to her kittens in peace.
To everyone's relief, Sabiyah emerged as a fierce mother – not a given when it comes to sand cats – and after several weeks, all five kittens appeared to be strong and healthy. The Safari said all five are strolling freely outside, and have already been reunited with their father, Marib.
Male sand cats are often removed from the vicinity of newborn kittens over concerns that they may be aggressive toward the kittens and engender them. This, however, was not the case: caregivers reported that Sabiyah doesn't allow Marib to come too close to her kittens and that so far, everyone is getting along splendidly.
The Ramat Gan Safari is part of a global program to boost the species' reproduction rate. The Israeli-born kittens will eventually travel to zoos in Europe, where they will hopefully continue increasing the species' population.
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