Elhaj Alifal’s scientific contributions

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Publications (4)


Home ranges of African sand cats (Felis margarita margarita)
  • Article

December 2022

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227 Reads

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1 Citation

Journal of Arid Environments

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Data on African sand cats Felis margarita margarita was collected in the southern provinces of Morocco between December 2015 and December 2019. Within these four years, a total of 47 sand cats were observed, 41 were captured and 22 were fitted with VHF radio-collars and tracked over various time spans. Home-range size estimations were calculated for 10 adult sand cats with more than 30 independent fixes. Home-range mean sizes averaged 274.6 ± 394.8 km2 (95% Minimum Convex Polygon ± SD) and 291.9 ± 417 km2 (95% Kernel Density Estimation ± SD) for females (N = 3; 149 locations) to 319.3 ± 451.8 km2 (95% MCP) and 304.5 ± 375.7 km2 (95% KDE) for males (N = 7; 311 locations). Given the number of sand cats observed in the study area and the external good conditions of all 41 captured cats, who showed no wounds, very few scars and no tooth breakage, we hypothesise that the sand cats are tolerant of each other and likely non-territorial. Our understanding of their ecology remains however limited and their social organization and mating pattern almost unknown. Important future research should focus on diet, overlying social organization and relatedness of sand cats, in relation with environmental conditions and anthropogenic factors.


Breton et al 2022. Body weights and measurements of African sand cats SOM.pdf
  • Data
  • File available

March 2022

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54 Reads

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Body weights and measurements of African sand cats (Felis margarita margarita)

March 2022

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111 Reads

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4 Citations

Mammal Research

During a telemetry study, body weights and body measurements of African sand cats Felis margarita margarita were recorded in the southern provinces of Morocco between December 2015 and December 2019. In total, 41 individuals (30 males and 11 females) were captured, weighed, and the body measurements of the specimens selected for radio-collaring were recorded, with a few individuals measured in different seasons. Captured males showed higher values in all parameters measured in winter. Males weighed significantly more than females, respectively 2.16 ± 0.36 kg (N=29) and 1.70 kg ± 0.21 (N=11), and, except for ear length, which did not significantly differ between sexes, we found significant differences between males and females for every other body measurement recorded: Males have significantly longer head-and-body length, tail, neck circumference, elbow-toe-tip length, shoulder length, canines, longer and wider front paws, and longer hindfoot length than females. Differences in body weight and measurements between adult and subadult males and females are also discussed. From three recaptured individuals, we found that winter weight was on average 14% heavier than summer weight.


Fig. 1. Three sand cat kittens taking refuge in a large perennial grass bunch (Photo A. Sliwa). 
Fig. 2. The three kittens, about 6-8 weeks old. From their head size it is likely that they are two males and one female. (Photo A. Sliwa). 
First sand cat kittens sighted in the Moroccan Sahara

November 2017

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1,052 Reads

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2 Citations

We report here on the first sighting and photographic documentation of kittens of African sand cats Felis margarita margarita in the region of Addrar Souttouf in the Moroccan Sahara near the Atlantic coast in late April 2017.

Citations (3)


... 15-5 kya), northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula experienced monsoon conditions, such that the predominant habitats were savanna and steppe grasslands with large lakes and rivers [64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]. Savanna mammals were widespread in what is now the Sahara Desert, as evidenced by cave art and fossils, including African elephants, Loxodonta africana, hippopotamus, Hippopotamus amphibius, rhinoceroses, Diceros bicornis and Ceratotherium simum, giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, hartebeest, Alcelaphus buselaphus, bohor reedbuck, Redunca redunca, and warthog, Phacochoeurus africanus [72][73][74][75]. It is unlikely that there was much, if any, desert habitat available in the Saharan region and the Arabian Peninsula until climatic deterioration occurred in the mid-Holocene, coincident with the rise of the Ancient Egyptian civilization [67,70]. ...

Reference:

Geographical Variation in the Sand Cat, Felis margarita (Carnivora: Felidae)
Home ranges of African sand cats (Felis margarita margarita)
  • Citing Article
  • December 2022

Journal of Arid Environments

... The tail has two to three rings, a black tip, and is around 30 cm long (Sausman, 1997). The 39 sand cats that were collected in a study in the winter ranged in weight from 1.32 to 2.95 kg and had tail lengths that varied from 21 to 28.5 cm and 43 to 53 cm, respectively (Breton et al., 2022). They have a broad face with well-developed cheek whiskers and huge ears that are positioned very low on the head (Sausman, 1997). ...

Body weights and measurements of African sand cats (Felis margarita margarita)
  • Citing Article
  • March 2022

Mammal Research

... We aimed to define the species' annual and seasonal home range sizes, with a more robust sample size than the aforementioned studies, and to characterize their social organisation through recording concurrent individual presence in the study area while recording their body weights and sex and assessing their age classes. After publishing some of our preliminary results (Breton et al., 2016;Sliwa et al., 2017) and data on morphology (Breton et al., 2022), we here present more extensive home-range estimate data on African sand cats collected from December 2015 to December 2019. ...

First sand cat kittens sighted in the Moroccan Sahara