Rare Sand Cat Kittens Born In Israel

The rare sand cats have been extinct in Israel since the 1990s, but the zoo is working with a European breeding program to improve their numbers.Rotem, a rare sand cat, with her three kittens, produced in an Israeli zoo despite her tepid reaction to her new mate from Sweden.

Finally, reluctant to ask Sweden if their cat had a problem, and despite being concerned about war in the wee hours, the keepers decided to leave the cats shut up in the same room for the night. "We don't normally do that with sand cats because they're so rare, and if they fight they could badly hurt each other," Horowitz explains. Lo, they did notice that Rotem had grown rather rotund. And three weeks ago, the keepers arriving for their day shift saw three furballs in Rotem's den. She is proving to be an excellent mother, they say. Her mating with Sela of blessed memory had occurred in the cats' open area, because they hadn't been left alone for the night, so Rotem's two previous pregnancies (after 60-69 day gestation) had been anticipated. Nobody had observed the union with Kalahari, but there aren't many other options to explain the kittens. The absurdity that Israel has to import a sand cat endemic to Israel (Kalahari) from Sweden (flying on Turkish Airlines, via Istanbul) showcases the sad plight of our planet: many experts have been warning that mankind isn't about to cause a sixth great extinction event. He already is.