“Guess who showed up on camera?” asks EmiratesNature-WWF, a nonprofit based in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). A trail cam had captured a rare apex predator in the UAE’s Wadi Wurayah National Park—a wild cat called the Arabian caracal.
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“Those black ear tufts belong to the Arabian Caracal – a rare and critically endangered wild cat in the UAE,” wrote the nonprofit in an Instagram post sharing the trail-cam footage. “It was recently rediscovered in Wadi Wurayah National Park, the UAE’s first mountain protected area.”
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According to EmiratesNature-WWF, caracals are apex predators, and they help keep their mountain ecosystem in balance. And yet, spotting one in the wild is extremely rare.
“The wild thing? They’re so elusive and mostly nocturnal, they’ve only been recorded a handful of times in recent decades,” the nonprofit says.
See the rare Arabian wild cat here:
Header stock image of an Arabian caracal by Gal Productions/Getty Images
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