There's hope for the Israeli sand cat species as one named Rotem gave birth to a girl kitten, Renana (meaning "joy" or "song"), three weeks ago at the Ramata Gan Safari outside of Tel Aviv. Solitary felines that once freely roamed the sand dunes of Israel, the sand cats are now largely thought to be extinct outside of captivity in that area of the world. [snip] Zookeepers are hoping to enter Renana into Israel's Sand Cat Breeding Program, whose mission is to reintroduce sand cats back to their native, natural habitat Adorable photo of Sand Cat at link.