Recently, a group of local activists have launched a new website to introduce Sarigol National Park, one of the old reserves in northeastern Iran where hosts the endangered Persian leopard and Urial wild sheep. With the aim of spreading the word of nature protection, mainly at regional and local level, the website has been developed parallel to meetings with local people for promotion of wildlife protection in Sarigol.
With an area of more than 7037 ha, SNP is located some 20 km east of the city of Esfarayen, North Khorasan Province. It was part of Sarigol Protected Area, which was established in 1973, and was then separated and promoted to national park status in 2002 by the Iranian Department of Environment (DoE). The altitude range of 1400-2940 m, mean annual temperature of 140 C and annual precipitation of 273 mm give the region a temperate semi-arid climate.
Since 2005, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) carried out a project to study the lesser investigated Persian leopard in Sarigol parallel to outreach community-based educational programs. The main ungulate inhabiting the area is the Urial wild sheep together with a low density of wild boar and Persian wild goat. Stone marten, grey wolf,
red fox, Pallas’ cat and Asiatic wild cat, as well as Persian leopard, are the main representatives of the Carnivora confirmed in the area.
You can visit the area’s website as www.sarigol.ir.
