The first cheetah airplane in the world, an Airbus A320 belonging to Meraj Airlines, made its first flight on 13 September 2015 at 08:00 from Tehran to Mashhad. Meraj Airlines started its collaborations in educational awareness activities with the Iranian Cheetah Society in winter 2015.
The Persian Leopard Project in North-eastern Iran led by ICS’ senior researcher Mohammad Farhadinia, successfully radio-collared another male leopard in Tandoureh National Park in Razavi Khorasan province. As Mohammad’s PhD study with University of Oxford’s WildCRU and in collaboration with Iran Department of the Environment and Panthera, the project seeks to address a number of ecological and conservation questions regarding the persistence of Persian leopards on fragmented key habitats in northeastern Iran along borders with Turkmenistan.
The new leopard, a young male of about 3-4 years old, was named “Kaveh”, after one of the hard-working research assistants in the project. The project has so far successfully radio-collared three other adult male leopards in this reserve. A team of Iranian documentary makers are closely filming the project for a documentary which is planned to be launched in 2017/18.
In collaboration with Enghelab Sport Complex for Women, Iranian Cheetah Society run a crossfit game during the Cheetah National Day ceremony. The event focused on raising awareness on the status and conservation needs of the Asiatic cheetah in Iran.
The Yayha Prize, an award for Iranian wardens hosted by ICS, featured in a popular family TV show on Iran’s National TV. A gift photo of Kushki, the Iranian male cheetah in captivity, by one of the ICS’ members was also shown in the show. The show, hosted by Iranian actor and comedian Rambod Javan, is believed to be one of the most watched TV shows in Iran.
Read more about the Yahya Prize here.
The ninth annual ceremony of the Cheetah National Day was successfully held in Tehran, as well as in several populated areas in periphery of the cheetah reserves across 13 Iranian provinces. The event included numerous educational and awareness activities for both adult and children focusing on the gloomy status of cheetahs in Iran, the last stronghold of the subspecies in Asia. The ceremony’s main slogan was #70survivors, referring to the total number of cheetah believed to exist in Iran.
The Cheetah National Day launches every year by the Iranian Cheetah Society, and Darkouba Game Company, Plan for the Land Society, Pars Herpetological Institute, ID & Aborz, The Environment Society of Rajaei University, Tehran Zoo were the active collaborators in this year.
Two members of the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) climbed the highest Iranian peak, Damavand, in the name of Iranian cheetahs. Sahar Dadkhah and Vahid Farid, a young Iranian couple, and their team at Nemouneh Mountaineering Group, made their way through the top of the 5,671-m Damavand aiming to attract attentions for conservation of the Critically Endangered Asiatic cheetah.
The Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) launched the first phase of the cheetah monitoring program across some key cheetah reserves in 2012. Abbas Abad Wildlife Refuge in Esfahan province, central Iran, is one of these key habitats. In collaboration with Esfahan Department of the Environment, Naeen Office of Department of the Environment, and Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP), ICS’ camera traps on water points in Abbas Abad have recently captured an array of large to medium-size mammal species, including the Endangered Persian leopard.
The camera trapping survey in Abbas Abad will continue throughout this summer and fall 2015 focusing on areas with high likelihood of cheetah occurrence.
In collaboration with Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project and Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) launches training workshops for rangers in cheetah reserves of Iran. Rangers from four different cheetah reserves attended the first workshop at Kavir National Park, Semnan province. Last updates about the status of cheetahs in Iran, conservation efforts in different sites, preliminary results of the recent camera-trapping studies, and working with local people and community-based management of cheetah reserves were among the issues presented in the workshop. These series of workshops are going to be continued in other cheetah reserves during 2015/2016.
The event, jointly held by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Iran Department of the Environment, celebrated collaboration of Iranian conservationists and athletes aiming for education and environmental awareness purposes. Iranian Cheetah Society’s CEO, Morteza Eslami, received the prize in the final ceremony from the national managers of the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project. Additionally, the head of the Society’s documentary production unit, Fathollah Amiri, awarded as the best environmental documentary maker.
The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports of Iran, deputies of Iran Department of the Environment, environmental NGOs and activists, and a number of Iranian top athletes attended the final ceremony.
Very recently a video of a captive cheetah has rapidly spread on the web, in which apparently the owner is talking with the animal in Farsi. The Iranian Cheetah Society is investigating the originality of the video and has tried to contact the video creator. It is not understood if the video is actually captured in Iran, or in one of the Persian Gulf countries where keeping exotic animals like cheetahs are common, and if the animal in this video is an Asiatic cheetah. It is not possible to draw any firm conclusion based on this video as Asiatic and African cheetahs are morphologically are almost look alike. The Iranian Cheetah Society encourages the public to contact us with any information about this video at: info@wildlife.ir
Postal Address: P.O.Box 14155-8549, Tehran, Iran
Office: Unit 2, Number 3, Jomhouri Ave, Tehran, Tehran Province
Whatsapp: +98 (935) 2450054
Email:
info[at]wildlife[dot]ir
