{"id":6912,"date":"2026-07-22T09:35:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6912"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:35:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:35:49","slug":"how-a-youtube-video-accidentally-proved-the-existence-of-libyas-desert-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6912","title":{"rendered":"How a YouTube video accidentally proved the existence of Libya\u2019s \u2018desert ghosts\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n It\u2019s not every day that a YouTube video triggers a major wildlife discovery, yet that\u2019s exactly what Mohammed Almuntasir unknowingly did when he hit upload in 2017.\n <\/p>

Read more Exclusive: The false claims, chaos and coverups behind the Trump administration\u2019s killing of two American citizens<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Clocking in at just 18 seconds, the clip showed a fun-sized feline curling up under the shade of a desert shrub in the photographer\u2019s native Libya. Almost a decade later, it was confirmed as the first documented evidence that the North African country was home to the sand cat, a wild felid that is as elusive as it is adorable.\n <\/p>\n

\n A longtime field photographer of plants and animals across the North African country, it was not that Almuntasir had not realized what he was looking at. He had seen sand cats in Libya previously, but their nocturnal nature had foiled his attempts to capture footage.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs soon as I saw the animal, I knew it was a sand cat because I had seen the species before at night,\u201d Almuntasir told CNN via email.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHowever, I had never been able to photograph it because I did not have a camera suitable for night photography, or camera traps.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\"Almuntasir<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nAlmuntasir was initially oblivious to the scientific significance of his footage.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Courtesy Mohammed Almuntasir<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Almuntasir assumed the diminutive desert cats \u2014 which typically grow to a maximum of 22.5 inches (57 centimeters) and 7.5 pounds (3.5 kilograms) \u2014 had already been documented in his homeland.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet despite some scattered reports dating back to the mid-20th century, the sand cat (Felis margarita<\/em>) had never been officially verified as native to Libya, Firas Hayder, an expert on North African small carnivores, told CNN; instead, it was primarily associated with Sahara regions across other North African countries like Morocco, as well as Southwest and Central Asia.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hence Hayder\u2019s shock when he contacted Almuntasir a few weeks after the video was posted, and the photographer nonchalantly confirmed that \u2014 true to the YouTube video\u2019s title \u2014 \u201csand cat in Libya\u201d had indeed been filmed in the Al-Hamada Al-Hamra region of the Libyan Desert, close to the Tunisian border.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI told him, \u2018No!\u2019\u201d laughed Hayder, a wildlife ecologist and North Africa regional coordinator for the African Small Carnivore Research Initiatives, a nonprofit headquartered at South Africa\u2019s Sol Plaatje University.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201c\u2019For you, it is normal, but for us not.\u2019 He was surprised. He told me, \u2018Are you sure?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Yes, this is the first record.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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