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مدیر سایت

Narrating story about Cheetah for Work Children

by مدیر سایت October 28, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

Simultaneously with the Children’s week, Morteza eslami the chief executive officer of the Iranian Cheetah Society with Massoumeh Ebtekar the head of Department of environment of Iran, attended to the child Labor school in state no.12 in Tehran and they narrated stories about cheetah for the kids.

As a part of the ceremony, with the aim of a tribute to Children’s week and to a special sort of Children of Tehran the Work Children, Morteza Eslami introduced the Iranian cheetah to the children. The CEO also told the present some memoirs of the Iranian cheetahs and why protecting these endangered creatures is such a matter.

In this conference, the head of environment of Iran on the behalf of the Government of Hassan Rouhani mentioned the impact of social organizations. “lately, a budget from the government is to be set to support these social enterprises and I hope that it gets official so that these organizations will be trustworthy and be supported by the law.” said Massoumeh Ebtekar.
She also said furthermore:” It is important to boost in protecting the WildLife and hopefully these improvements will be made by the corporations of Environmental societies, social organizations especially children and Iranian Environmental Department.” It is worth noting the tribute ceremony following the global children day, was held on October 2nd by Child Labor organization and Tehran’s Environmental Protection Society’s assist. The CEO’s assistant, the Deputy of CEO and the head of Tehran’s Environmental Protection Society and other staff were present as well.
Source: WildLife database -Iran Student Correspondent Association

October 28, 2014 0 comments

educational tours

kooshki, Media’s focus

by مدیر سایت October 25, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

A variety of reporters from the Environmental associations and other medias invited by the ICS visited Koishki, An Iranian Cheetah living in a semi captive situation.
The aim of this tour held with finance given by the ICS, was to acknowledge the news academies with plans and activities accomplished for the Iranian Cheetahs as one of them is on track in MianDasht Nature Reserve by the Iranian Cheetah society with the financial support of Iranian Newsport Department.
Visiting the “cheetah lasting” project that consists of visiting the Society’s camera traps, new made water bowls (also known as watering places), visiting the Iranian Cheetah’s habitat and etc were in society’s schedule for the delegates of the social medias in this tour.
Reporters also got to know about the requirements for keep the cheetah in the semi captive situation, problems for cohabitation and the current situation of the nature rangers.
Not only that but a component of weaknesses and problems such as water supplying, non normative road making and roads crossing the natural habitats of cheetah and lack of knowledge of local citizens /villagers about the importance of this carnivore’s presence in the life chain were explained and mentioned to these reporters.

October 25, 2014 0 comments

seminars

18th WildLife seminar held

by مدیر سایت October 20, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 2 minutes read

The 18th WildLife meeting took place on Tuesday 14th of October introducing the project “Building Capacity of protecting the Iranian Cheetah for the local villagers in Dilaman (also written as Deylaman) in Dolfak,Ghafghaz” by the Iranian Cheetah Society. A Conflict as decisive action for this assembly, led us to see differences in opinions of each influenced role taker in damaged ranches by the leopard. This project was at first believed to be an educational approach and also was defined to save the leopard in three villages located Deilaman in Dolfak region. Despite that, with investigations done the aim was changed to managing these Conflicts with collaborative steps to build capacity in these villages. This project that has been on track for two years, started by perceiving the lifestyle and community livelihoods and then the cow “damage” problem was in focus. Following that, with a general planning and effort to find the causes for the cow damage*, a set of solutions was collected so that can be an answer to diversity in the lifestyle and livelihoods.

The project team (Sima Babrqir, Sara Baqeri and Mahdi Soleymani) explained how during the process the target aim changed from the protecting the leopard to the damaged cow so that it could include all the villagers from all three villages as follows more connections in the area. On the other hand, Conflict with leopard can be a cause in the damaged cow problem as the lack of leopard presence decreases the number of Conflicts.
Forming discussions and a general schedule for reducing cow damage, acknowledging people with nature with the respect to each side’s rights on the cow damage issue, constructing people’s cooperation with governmental organs and enthsue the local potentials to reduce the cow damage and further procedures, were examples of results done in this project. This meeting was held with 32 people including interested and environmental experts in Iran Technical Publishing Co hall.
• Cow Damage refers to the cows or even other rangers killed by the cheetahs/ leopards and this problem is a major one, considering the fact that rangers are such an important strategic organs for the villages, as a result of that, the villagers always have had conflicts with cheetahs/leopards. There should be something done in order to separate the local carnivores from the rangers, otherwise these conflicts will lead to worse solutions.

October 20, 2014 0 comments

Leopard Program

Borna & Bardiya supplied by radio collar

by مدیر سایت October 9, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 4 minutes read

The two grown up leopards in the Tandoureh National park of are now equipped with radio collars. Both of these two leopards known to be males were captured in internal zones of the park; they got caught four nights after another in the last days of September. This research was started in the topic of Mohammad Farhadinia’s PHD thesis and is still running thanks to Eiman Memarian and Ali Reza Shahrdari the veterinarian and his colleague, Arash Moharrami as the project’s assistant and Nima Asqari to be the documentary maker. Moreover Hooman Jokar the as the professional trapper, assisted the research in the early stages.
Borna is a young 4-6 years old male leopard captured and then Bardiya, an elder leopard with the age of 8-10 years old were both supplied with radio collars. None of these two were harmed in the traps and after the anesthesia and installing the radio collars over their necks, they left the area with full health. The recorded points of the both carnivores indicate regular displacements of leopards in their area.
One of the most determinate questions about the Iranian leopards and other species is to what extent is their living area and how wide is it? Meaning that by how far their target area is given to them. During the past, a small wild nature was given leopards so it was estimated that in a small-protected area, many of them lived. For instance, most of the Environmental guards believed that Golestan Park accommodates 100-150 leopards. Until when we do not know how wide a leopard requires living in and to what extent they exceed their borders, we cannot define a certain population for leopards. Undoubtedly, use of radio collars can answer the question marks.

Not only that, but also this project also aims to analysis leopards’ health situations. Nowadays, various diseases threaten wildlife, but our knowledge over these diseases especially about carnivores is limited. The internal and external viral parasites such Feline Pan leukopenia or FIV are the most important issues which will be investigated amongst the captured leopards.

This research with the aim of investing their movements in the border of the protected zones and beyond the borders, evaluating whether the borders are efficient enough or not for leopards’ long term survival, investing the chance of their trans boundary movement from Iran to Turkmenistan, medical investigations and assessing the health care each individual leopard in point of view of parasites, viral diseases and ecological investigations is be doing.

Regarding the international standards, the radio collars should not weigh more than 3% of animal’s weight so that no side effects will be observed in leopard’s behavior or its movements. Fortunately by heavy researches and calculations with radio collar production company, the mass of used radio collars do not exceed 1% of leopard’s weight. The batteries inside the radio collar last for more than one year. The GPS inside the radio collars turns on 8-24 times a day to record where the leopard is present at the moment. The radio collars have no sound and last for a limited time. Another perspective of radio collars is that they automatically get opened after one year so there is no need to capture the animal and anaesthetize it again. Not only a dot, a 3D space is estimated in one set of five minutes a day to document leopard’s everyday life activity. Later on, by analysing this data, we will figure out the energy needed for each leopard’s required energy for activities per day and how much they spend.

While getting close to the villages, the radio collars will inform the researcher and the rate of points withdrawn will increase once per an hour. In this case we can ensure that how the leopard reached the village and whether it put any efforts to attack the livestocks or not. During all these actions, the Foam inside the radio collar protects the neck from any pressure of the radio collar.

It should be noted that Dr. Mohammad Farhadinia as a member of Iranian Cheetah Society holds the management and research seat in the organization.
In case of being willing to get the news and reports over these two leopards, you are welcomed to visit our Facebook page and join the events.

October 9, 2014 0 comments

educational tours

WildLife trips announcement for October 2014- April 2015

by مدیر سایت October 8, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 2 minutes read

In order to have a clear plan for the members of the Iranian Cheetah Society, WildLife trips announcement for October 2014- April 2015 has been published. Amongst these special plans, activities such “the last chance to meet to Koishki in MianDasht and Delbar in khar Turan National park, cruise to Kani Barazan wetlands, looking for the Iranian cheetah in Tandoureh National Park, visiting the less known coasts and islands in the south of Iran- Mond, croiusing in one of the most important habitats of Iranian cheetah in Bafq, a tour to the beautiful and wonderful desert around Tabas, recline in a house without electricity and water from qanat in Nayband trip, watching hundreds of hawks and observing thousands of starlings in raptors site, boat riding, watching birds in Miyan Khor in Khuzestan tour etc.

row	activity	province	Special attraction	Implemntation date	Lasting for
1	Bashgoel protected area	Qazvin	Deer and hog	17 Oct	1 day
2	Khar Turan National park	Semnan	Cheetah, Persian Onager, Houbara Bustard, Pleske’s ground joy	23 & 24 Oct	2.5 days
3	MianDasht national Reserve	Northern Khorasan	Cheetah, Deer, Houbara Bustard, Eco- tourism	21-30 Oct	3 days
4	Naybandan WildLife refuge	southern khorasan	Looking for Cheetah footprints, obsolete villages and Eco- tourism	3-7 Nov	5.5 days
5	Kuh e Sefid Raptor site	Qom	Hawk, Griffon Vulture, Sarllings	14 Nov	1 day
6	Kani Barazan Wetland	West Azerbaijan	Birdwatching, White Stork and camping next to the wetland	20 & 21 Nov	2.5 days
7	Sems kandeh and Mainkaleh wetland-peninsula	Mazandaran	All sorts birds of Gorgan Gulf, red deer, Persian Fallow Deer	4 & 5 Dec	2.5 days
8	Tandoureh National Park	Razavi Khorasan	Cheetah, Mountainous nature in winter	11-13 Dec	3.5 days
9	Mond Protected area, Nayband National park, Helleh protected area, Nakhilo Islnads	Busher	Less seen coast of Persian Gulf, Jashk salt dome and uniques southern islands	23-26 Dec	3.5 days
10	Bojagh National Park, Amirkelayeh Wetland	Gilan	all sorts of birds and camping aside the wetland.	8 & 9 Jan	2.5
11	Shadegan Wetland	Khuzestan	Habitat forests of Persian Fallow deer, Arabian Oryx, Boat riding, Birdwatching	10-13 Feb	3 days
12	Bafq protected Area, Ariz hunting prohibited area	Yazd	Looking for Cheetah footprints, unique hills and desert, checking the sir tracks	26 & 27 Feb	2.5 days

WildLife tours Calendar WildLife tour information website: http://yuztour.ir/ Features and requirements of each trip will be published in particular announcements and news will be spread by SMS and Email for the members and the website (https://www.wildlife.ir/) gets updated with news for other devotees. The Iranian Cheetah Society with the aim of make all of its members and other devotees to acknowledge the WildLife and nature of Iran by various tours to national parks, protected areas and WildLife refuges. The activities were started since 2010 and were done frequently and well supported by the members of the society. It should be noted that revenue made from these trip are to be spent directly on the protection projects for Iranian cheetah Society.

October 8, 2014 0 comments

work shop

Premise Photography training Workshop is held

by مدیر سایت October 7, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

The first Photography training workshop with the topic of “Premises and equipments of photography of nature and Wildlife” was held by solidarity of Avaye Arasban association.

In this workshop lasting of three hours and a half, the members of Iranian Cheetah Society, got to acknowledge the basics of photography, techniques to observe objects better, materials for photography and combinations in photography of nature. Also at the end of this workshop, Sir Kaveh Farzaneh answered questions of the audiences.
It should be noted the objective of this workshop was to gain the knowledge and improve members’ skills in the field of photography and introducing the basics in order to capture better pictures of the nature and the Wildlife and this will be done more frequently.

October 7, 2014 0 comments

Public Relations

One Koushki and two Delbar

by مدیر سایت September 28, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 5 minutes read

Amir Firoozi Raad’s report; the reporter and photographer for Iran Student Correspondents Association (ISCA) has been published which includes his visit from a wildlife institution in MianDasht ( a town in north center of Iran) central and Koishki and also his interview with Morteza Eslami Dehkordi, the CEO in Iranian cheetah society.

ISCA: it’s time for Koishki – the protected male iranian cheetah to find his mate. The chosen female is called Delbar and she’s from Semnan (another city in the centre of Iran), but there’s another female, which is freely moving around Koishki’s town and sometimes they see each other. These meetings lead to their passion for each other. This passion will cause a wild pairing, which due to koishki’s unnatural destiny, will be accompanying his failure.
Who is Koishki and why can he not pair up?

Koishki is a male cheetah born in 2006. He was no more than just a cub when a woodman called Koishki bought him from shepherds who caught him in a trap. afterwards, Mr. koishki delivered this cheetah to Wildlife organization and that is why this cheetah is called Koishki.

Since being a cub, Koishki was kept in Pardisan park and then kept in the protected area in MianDasht. Thus he does not have the ability to last independently in the wild and in case of being set free, he cannot pass challenges such as finding water, food and shelter.
Koishki and Dalbar’s pairing up problems justify a weakness in Iran’s wildlife despite of people doing their best in order to improve it. The place where Koishki and Delbar are going to cohabit (which is the only way to save the species of these two in the fence protected carnivores) has been the topic that requires more discussions as the deadline is getting closer for Koishki and Delbar to meet each other.

Merger under urban condition

There have been verbal dispute between states or even commercials about the equipments for this aim. At the first, North Khorasan and Semnan were the only nominated and also competitive states to host these two cheetahs but now Tehran has became a strong rival and it is approved that Tehran is their compulsory immigration’s destination.
To achieve this goal, a group was formed consist of Iran Wildlife organization, Iranian Cheetah society and Iranian cheetah Protection Organization. The members of this group were unwilling with Pardisan Park as the appropriate place for this goal to take place. However, after a while, regarding to Wildlife’s conclusion, Tehran was elected.
“ By now few steps were taken in order to get prepared for Koishki and Delbar’s arrival and then, the captive couple’s cohabitation” said Massoumeh Ebtkar, the presidium of Iran Wildlife. In spite of choice of Tehran, more considerations should be done about Tehran’s polluted air and its safety. Not only a year ago a deer was hunted and then shot in Pardisan Park but a Pallas’s cat was also stolen from that area.

“Cohabitation is best in the nature”

Mr. Eslami bets on MianDasht as the most appropriate place for this procedure. Yet he says “ I do not recommend any place. Northern Khorasan state is officially Cheetah’s habitat and MianDasht WildLife institution was formed with the aim of studying on Cheetahs, their cohabitation and releasing the newborn cheetahs. Although the topic of releasing newborn cheetahs is a complicated process and depends on various variables.”

He declared on MianDasht WildLife institution‘s activity: “ this organization has had a great influence in the state. For instance, a cheetah was observed in Chehel Dokhtaran village and villagers instead of hunting it down, they followed the cheetah and took pictures of it. If this effort will be kept put, more positive effects will appear.” He mentioned the MianDasht site’s requirements for Koishki and Delabr’s cohabitation; “For hosting the cheetahs, this site is well supplied but for further projects, it calls for the heads of the state and governors and their corporations.”

In addition to these requirements, Mr. Eslami explains: “ In order to give birth in captivity, veterinarian monitoring equipments are obligatory. Transferring the pregnant animal to Tehran for CT and Radiology is not possible. A professional vet should also be present all the time. If North Khorasan is willing to host this program and make profit, they should spend money and also time for it. By now, only two nature rangers are working in Miandasht zone trying to protect Koishki; and the area itself is facing lack of nature ranger force.

Eslami adds:” The group’s main concept was to take the management from the Iran Wildlife organization and grant it to private sectors but this could not turn into a final conclusion. “ He says regarding to Tehran hosting: ” Tehran is supplied with better assets. Some research institutes are better and there are the possibilities people and schools visit the Cheetah.

In Eslami’s point of view, the managers’ transformation is another problem that will be caused of Koishki and Delbar’s presence in Tehran. “Having these two cheetahs very close to the instutue’s manager might make the new manager keen to make different decisions about this issue. The idea to sustenance them in somewhere else can avoid them from unexpected decisions.”

The manager of the Iranian Cheetah Society believes in deciding on this case professionally. “This topic must be summed up expertly and instead of arguments, efficient works should be done.”

The proprietors of Koishki’s destiny have chosen Delbar for him and the other anonymous cheetah from MianDasht has no chance pairing with Koishki. Nevertheless, MianDasht the Cheetah’s original dwelling gives us the chance to by setting up Koishki and Delbar’s wedding party, grabs attention and advertises the protection and serve to these animals.

Photo by : Amir Firouzi Rad- Koushki at Miandasht / Mohammad Gaeini – Delbar at Touran

September 28, 2014 0 comments

Asiatic Cheetah Conservation Program Asiatic Cheetah Population Monitoring Program

‘Iranian carnivores’ dining menu through the lens of a hidden camera

by مدیر سایت September 21, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

The newest captured photos by camera traps in different areas of Iran, represents the diverse food menu of the Iranian carnivores. By now various pictures of the Caracal, Rüppell’s fox, Blanford’s fox (Vulpes cana), Wolf and Hyena were taken in different areas of Iran which demonstrate the hunting and scavenging actions of these animals on other mammals.

The ‘National Monitoring of the Asiatic Cheetah Program in Iran’ which got started by the Iranian Cheetah Society with the collaboration of wildlife departments in different states of Iran has been running since mid 2011. This program dedicates a great amount of information to researchers and scholars and based on that information; they can discover valuable new facts about the their lives and the ecology of different species. These discoveries and information can be used in order to figure out more about the situation regarding the different species of carnivores – especially the Asiatic Cheetah.

September 21, 2014 0 comments

ICS News

Iranian Cheetah at Jam-E Jam TV

by مدیر سایت September 13, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

The Weekend Morning is a show broadcast on Iran’s state TV. The latest episode of the show hosted by Hamidreza Reyhanian, a well-known environmental activist, focused on environmental challenges in Iran. The Iranian Cheetah Society’s CEO, Morteza Eslami Dehkordi and Shahram Amiri Sharifi, Manager of Animal Rights Watch were invited to the program to discuss the environmental challenges in Iran and the importance of protecting Iran’s wildlife, including the last Asiatic cheetahs. The current situation of Iran’s wildlife was also reviewed in the program.

During the program, footage of cheetahs was broadcast recorded by the Iranian Cheetah Society’s wildlife cameras installed in Naibandan, Dareh Anjir and Miandasht, some of the areas in the country where cheetahs are protected.

The Iranian Cheetah Society is hoping that broadcasting similar programs will help in educating the public with regards to wildlife protection, in particular the near extinct Asiatic cheetahs.

September 13, 2014 0 comments

Festivals & Conferences Yahya Award

wardens program became a years old

by مدیر سایت September 10, 2014

written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

Increasing motivation and promoting conservation efforts of the wildlife wardens have always been a priority for the Iranian Cheetah Society. Therefore, the Warden Programme was started last year to support the Park Wardens across the country. During the first year, the following activities were initiated:

1- The Yahya award
2- The Yoozban award
3- Participatory monitoring
4- Provision of equipements

More than 50 wardens from all over the country, especially cheetah habitats were involved in the program and nearly 400,000,000 Rls was allocated for the activities during the first year.

Next year, in addition to the initiatives mentioned above, educational and skill development programs have been considered for the wardens across the country. These programs will be implemented in cooperation with the government’s Department of Environment.
Iranian Cheetah Society has published a report highlighting the activities undertaken as part of the Warden Programs. You can download the report from the link below.

September 10, 2014 0 comments