You should probably hold on to your seats because this video of wild sand cat kitties is too cute to handle!
In the early morning hours of about 2 a.m. in the Moroccan Sahara, Panthera France Director Gregory Breton was trying to keep his SUV driver awake while a colleague squatted on the roof, shining lamps into the bushes. The team was just so close to giving up on their expedition, however, that’s just when something (really adorable) happened! They saw three gleaming pairs of eyes peering back up at them.
The three tiny eyes belonged to young sand cats, yellowish in color with broader faces and larger ears than a domestic cat. Seeing the kittens was a complete breakthrough and quite possibly the first time researchers have ever documented wild sand cats in their natural African range. Spotting a sand cat is very difficult: they don’t leave behind any of the remains of their prey, their vocalizations are extremely quiet, they move stealthily at dusk, night and dawk, and are adept at hiding. Luckily, however, Panthera team was able to get video footage of these precious babies!
What’s more, just when the team was leaving the area, they spotted an adult sand cat, quite possibly the kitten’s mother. Panthera is hoping to collect footage of her and follow her for a period of time collecting data.
This is the first time this has ever been documented! How remarkable!
