We previously wrote about the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS)’s recent camera trapping survey in Naybandan Wildlife Refuge, which revealed another long-distance movement by a male Iranian cheetah, named as “Pouyan”
In the Naybandan survey, our camera traps photographed three different male cheetahs in multiple occasions across the reserve. Besides “Pouyan”, one of the males was identified as “Arash”, the cheetah whose photograph won the BBC Wildlife Magazine’s prize in 2014 . ICS researchers could eventually identify the third cheetah, known for us as “Navid”!
Navid was photographed for the first time by a team from National Geographic in 2011. But he missed in the following surveys in Naybandan Wildlife Refuge. Re-photographing Navid after 4 years is indeed very good news, showing our poor knowledge about the survival and population dynamics of Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. Our survey efforts in Naybandan are running in collaboration with South Khorasan Provincial Office of Iran Department of Environment, Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project, and Part Wildlife Discovery Institute.
A camera-trap photograph of “Arash” from Naybandan Wildlife Refuge, fall 2015
Camera-trap photograph of “Pouyan” in Naybandan, fall 2015
“Navid” was photographed in Naybandan by a team from National Geographic in 2011
The new photo from “Navid” by ICS camera traps in Naybandan Wildlife Refuge, fall 2015
Comparison of Navid’s coat pattern from pictures obtained in 2011 and 2015
A camera-trap photograph of “Arash” from Naybandan Wildlife Refuge, 2014.