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

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

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