A first-time mother at the North Carolina Zoo gave birth to a litter of three sand cat kittens, as announced by the zoo.
At the Asheboro zoo, the arrival of three kittens was celebrated as mother Sahara (3 years old) and father Cosmo (9 years old) joyfully welcomed their offspring on May 11.
Sahara embraces motherhood for the first time, while Cosmo has had the experience of fathering a daughter named Layla, who currently resides at the Greensboro Science Center.
The zoo has announced that the genders of the kittens remain undisclosed, and an online poll will be conducted shortly to determine their names.
Sand cats, indigenous to North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Asia, are nocturnal felines. Due to their elusive nature, the duration of their existence in the wild and the size of their population remain unknown to researchers.
As participants in the Sand Cat Species Survival Plan established by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the three kittens were born with the objective of preserving a genetically diverse and thriving population of sand cats to support their population growth.