Sand cats live in some of the world’s harshest true deserts, mainly across North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of Southwest and Central Asia.

Quick Scoop: Where Do Sand Cats Live?

Sand cats are desert specialists. They are naturally found in three broad regions.

  • North Africa: Sahara Desert regions of Algeria, Niger, Morocco, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Sudan, and Western Sahara.
  • Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, and surrounding desert areas.
  • Southwest & Central Asia: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

These cats prefer very dry , open desert landscapes with sparse grasses or small shrubs, including sandy and stony plains and rocky valleys far from permanent water sources.

What Their Habitat Is Like

  • True deserts with extreme temperatures: daytime surface heat can reach around 51°C (124°F) and drop close to freezing at night.
  • Flat or gently rolling terrain, not steep mountains or dense vegetation.
  • Loose, non-compacted sand where they can dig burrows to escape the heat and cold.

At a high level: if you imagine the big belt of deserts stretching from the Atlantic side of the Sahara across Arabia into Central Asia, that’s the sand cat’s home range.

TL;DR: Sand cats live in hot, dry deserts of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Central/Southwest Asia, in sandy and stony plains where they dig burrows to survive extreme temperatures.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.