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مدیر سایت

مدیر سایت

membersPublic Relations

9th of Shahrivar,critically endangered species day

by مدیر سایت September 8, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

The National Cheetah Day marks the anniversary of saving Marita, the cheetah cub which was saved by wildlife rangers in 1373 (1994) near Bafgh, in central Iran. Let’s read the account of what happened on that day, as narrated by Pouria, an Iranian boy:

“On the 9th day of Shahrivar a cheetah family, including the mother and her three cubs, were wandering in the desert searching for water. Eventually they got close to the town when they unfortunately were attacked by humans. One of the cubs died on the scene. The other cub fled but did not survive. Luckily, the last cub was saved and moved to the protected City Park. There, although alone, she lived under protection for years.”

Marita, the cheetah cub saved by the wildlife rangers, lived at Pardisan Park near Tehran until 1373 (1994).

September 8, 2014 0 comments
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Education and Capacity Building

cheetah through teenagers football federation

by مدیر سایت September 5, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 0 minutes read

In recent years, the Iranian Cheetah Society has taken the opportunity to use sporting events (in particular the most popular sport in Iran, football) to educate the public about cheetahs and other wildlife in danger of extinction. Following recent cooperations with the Football Federation the Society took part in the education and training workshop of the second Football Festival for Schoolchildren. More than 500 schoolboys attended the festival where in addition to improving their football skills they learnt about cheetahs through games and educational activities.

September 5, 2014 0 comments
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national day of Iranian Cheetah

Cheetahs run around Iran, 9th day of shahrivar

by مدیر سایت September 1, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

The month of Shahrivar of each year (crsp. to Aug-Sep) is a special time for all people involved in wildlife conservation in Iran. In 1386 (2007), the ninth day of Shahrivar (31 Aug.) was selected as the National Cheetah Day. The Cheetah Day provides an opportunity for the wildlife advocates to engage with the public in order to educate people about cheetahs and to draw attention to these majestic cats which are on the brink of extinction.
This year the Cheetah Day will be celebrated more actively across the country with numerous activities planned in more than 25 cities.
The Cheetah Day marks the anniversary of saving Marita, the cheetah cub which was saved by Park Rangers in 1373 (1994) near Bafgh, in central Iran. On that day, Marita’s mother and her three cubs were attacked by a couple of people not native to the area when they approached the town to find water. The mother fled injured, but unfortunately two of her cubs were killed. Marita was saved and was transferred to the Pardisan Park in Tehran, where she was living until 1383 (2004).

September 1, 2014 0 comments
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ICS NewsletterLeopard Program

The Persian Leopard Newsletter is back!

by مدیر سایت August 2, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read
Inspired by the Persian calender’s “Year of the Leopard”, in 2010 the Iranian Cheetah Society launched a campaign to raise awareness about the dire status of Endangered Persian leopard in Iran. Iran has always been perceived as the leopard stronghold in Western Asia. However, sadly, the long-term survival of Iranian leopards is worrisome given the escalated rate of habitat and prey loss coupled with extensive human-leopard conflicts, affecting the leopard populations across the country. The “Persian Leopard Newsletter” was published during 2010-2011 to present our activities focusing on conservation of the Persian leopard in Iran.
We are delighted to inform you that the Persian Leopard Newsletter is back! Although the Year of Leopard has passed, our goal remained unchanged. As before, this newsletter will serve as our communication and awareness tool; not only to bring you a first-hand picture of our efforts in Iran, but also to draw international attention to the enigmatic Persian leopard.

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August 2, 2014 0 comments
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Asiatic Cheetah Conservation ProgramICS in News

It’s still possible to save the Asiatic cheetah, the world’s second-rarest cat

by مدیر سایت July 13, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 4 minutes read

The Conservation: The last few surviving Asiatic cheetahs live in Iran, where they stalk the hyper-arid landscape, where temperatures swing from -30°C to 50°C. This is the only place in the world a cheetah, most of which live in Africa, will experience snow.

Iran is home to the last known population of Asiatic cheetah, a creature which once roamed across vast ranges of west and south Asian countries, from the Middle East to India. Today, the cheetahs are known only from around 15 reserves in Iran, all officially protected by the country’s government.

Together with genetic distinctiveness from their African cousins, the Asiatic cheetahs are smaller and more slightly built. Iranian biologists were surprised to learn that the Asiatic cheetahs are mainly found in mountainous regions – a very different proposition from the view expected from wildlife documentaries in which cheetahs pursue sprinting gazelles across open plains.

Camera traps are reliable tools to try to gauge the population of these spotted cats, whose markings are individually unique. However, this technology has been rarely applied to cheetahs across their global range due to the paucity of individuals and their elusive nature. Due to political sanctions, the necessary equipment is not easily available in Iran, and this has prevented a thorough assessment of the species in the past.

Thanks to various donors and partners, including Panthera and Dutch NGO Stichting SPOTS, a monitoring program was recently launched that would fill the gaps in our knowledge about the cheetah that is essential for its protection. Even so the results were surprising, revealing only 40 to 70 cheetahs across the country – smaller even than previous estimates of up to 100. Listed as critically endangered by the IUCN, the Asiatic cheetah is among the rarest cats in the world at subspecies level, after the Amur leopard.

Guarding Iran’s last cheetahs

Around 125 game guards protect the cheetah’s range in Iran as Cheetah Guardians, thanks to tremendous efforts of the Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP), the Iranian Department of the Environment (DoE), and UNDP in Iran, which tried to double the number of guards employed by the DoE during the past decade. Equipped with 4WD vehicles and motorbikes, each guard is responsible for protecting around 640km2 of the landscape, an indication that more forces are needed.

In order to safeguard the cheetahs, the DoE established more reserves while existing reserves received more resources. In the Iran’s northeast Miandasht Wildlife Refuge has been a key site for the cheetahs after a threefold boom in prey species. As a result, the cheetahs have established a breeding population there, vital to help re-colonise other reserves.

As is the case for many wildlife species, the cheetah was little known among the public ten years ago. But with the animals’ plight appealing to the media it has garnered considerable coverage, leaving the public in no doubt about the state of the cheetah’s decline. With united effort from government and NGOs, this year the cheetah even became the first species to appear emblazoned on the Iranian national football team’s jerseyduring the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

So as a symbol of the nation’s wildlife, the public awareness and support the cheetah receives is an important step to ensure its long-term survival. But it is not enough. It is vital to build an expert opinion on what to do about the species’ critically small population, rising mortality from human causes, such as traffic collisions, and falling birth rates.

While further research is needed, we know that Asiatic cheetahs have much lower genetic diversity than African cheetahs, but we are still hopeful that better connectivity between the various reserves to allow cheetahs to intermingle could maintain a basic level of gene flow between small cheetah populations.

We need the authorities to confront and defeat plans for property development and infrastructure such as roads, mines and railways within the main cheetah reserves. For example, a road to be constructed through Bafq Protected Area in central Iran was a major concern, but the DoE managed to stop construction and propose an alternative route.

Cheetahs are known to kill small livestock, and claims of cheetahs killing young camel, sheep, and goat are rife among shepherds. Recent cases in different parts of the country have raised concerns that cheetahs could be killed by protective herders. At least five have been known to be killed by herders since 2010, twice the number killed in the previous decade. To try to prevent this, the Iranian Department of Environment and CACP established a programme to compensate for cheetah predation for five years.

On August 31 1994 a cheetah was rescued from dying of thirst in central Iran. Named Marita, for nearly ten years she was the only evidence of the existence of cheetahs outside Africa. In 2007, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) designated August 31 as National Cheetah Day, an annual event to draw people’s attention to conservation issues in Iran. The cheetah is lucky to have a day bearing its name, but to survive they will need much more than luck.

July 13, 2014 0 comments
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Asiatic Cheetah Conservation ProgramAsiatic Cheetah Population Monitoring Program

Cheetah survey in Khoshyeilagh

by مدیر سایت July 3, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

Khosh-Yeilagh is one of the most well-known protected areas located north of Shahrood in Semnan province. For more than four decades, the area has been a historical habitat for the Iranian Cheetah with an initial estimated 50 to 70 cheetahs living in the area in the 1970’s.

For years it was believed that the Iranian Cheetah has become extinct in Khosh-Yeilagh with the last sighting going back to 1983. However, a recent sighting made by the Park Ranger, Mr Ajami, provided hope that cheetahs may still exist there. This was later confirmed again by the Rangers when two cheetahs were sighted.

Subsequently, the Environmental Protection Department of Semnan province started a monitoring project in cooperation with the Iranian Cheetah Society. The objective of the program was initially to observe the conditions of cheetahs in the area and to obtain more information about the rare Iranian cat. The project was started last winter and in the first phase several cameras were installed at locations specified by the park rangers and environmental experts.

The Iranian Cheetah Society has undertaken projects in the past to educate the residents of the near-by villages about cheetahs. As part of the project, art festivals and educational plays have been organised to familiarize residents with cheetah habits and behavior.

July 3, 2014 0 comments
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ICS in News

Iran is rushing to try to save one of the world’s critically endangered species, the Asiatic cheetah

by مدیر سایت June 27, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 3 minutes read

AP Photo/Vahid Salemi

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran is rushing to try to save one of the world’s critically endangered species, the Asiatic cheetah, and bring it back from the verge of extinction in its last remaining refuge.

The Asiatic cheetah, an equally fast cousin of the African cat, once ranged from the Red Sea to India, but its numbers shrunk over the past century to the point that it is now hanging on by a thin thread – an estimated 50 to 70 animals remaining in Iran, mostly in the east of the country. That’s down from as many as 400 in the 1990s, its numbers plummeting due to poaching, the hunting of its main prey – gazelles – and encroachment on its habitat.

Cheetahs have been hit by cars and killed in fights with sheep dogs, since shepherds have permits to graze their flocks in areas where the cheetahs live, said Hossein Harati, the local head of the environmental department and park rangers at the Miandasht Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Iran.

At the reserve, rangers are caring for a male cheetah named Koushki, rescued by a local resident who bought it as a cub from a hunter who killed its mother around seven years ago, said Morteza Eslami Dehkordi, the director of Iranian Cheetah Society. “Since he was interested in environment protection, he bought the cub from him and handed it to the Department of Environment,” he said. The cheetah was named after his rescuer’s family name.

With help from the United Nations, the Iranian government has stepped up efforts to rescue the species – also with an eye to the potential for tourism to see the rare cat.

Rangers have been equipped with night vision goggles and cameras have been set up around cheetah habitats to watch for any threat. They have also been fitting cheetahs with U.N.-supplied GPS collars so their movements can be tracked. Authorities built shelters in arid areas where the cats can have access to water. They’ve also reached out to nearby communities, training them how to deal with cheetahs and promising compensation for livestock killed by cheetahs to prevent shepherds or farmers from hunting them.

Also, any development projects in cheetah habitats must be approved by Iran’s Environmental Department.

The efforts were given a symbolic boost at the ongoing World Cup in Brazil, where Iran’s team wore images of the cheetah on their uniform. The country has also named August 31 as Iran’s National Cheetah Day since 2006.

Once known as “hunting leopards,” Asiatic cheetahs were traditionally trained for emperors and kings in Iran and India to hunt gazelles. They disappeared across the Middle East about 100 years ago, although there were sightings in Saudi Arabia until the 1950s. They vanished in India in 1947 and ranged in Central Asia as far as Kazakhstan up to the 1980s.

Gary Lewis, with the U.N. Development Program, said the dropping numbers in Iran are alarming.

“There are no other Asiatic cheetahs like the one that you have here in Iran, so it is essential for us as human beings to conserve our biodiversity by protecting this animal,” he said.

Iran also hopes to attract more foreign tourists under moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who has vowed outreach to the West.

“It is an endangered species. The cheetah is considered to be one of the most charismatic cats,” said Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, who heads Iran’s Department of the Environment.

“It is important for, for example, our ecotourism when many people who enjoy coming just to visit our natural habitats for the cheetah and to see, to have a glimpse of the cheetah.” said Ebtekar. “So we are working very seriously with international organizations as well as our national specialists and experts to protect this species.”

African cheetahs are also a threatened species, with an estimated 10,000 adults remaining.

June 27, 2014 0 comments
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Asiatic Cheetah Conservation ProgramWater for Cheetahs Project

Water For Cheetahs

by مدیر سایت June 19, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

While Iranian cheetahs “National Soccer Team” are running in the Brazil’s World Cup, the cheetahs in hyper arid landscapes of Iranian deserts are suffering from limited water availability due to presence of feral camels. There are two types of water resources within Iranian desert reserves, natural springs and artificial waterholes which are regularly filled with tanker by the rangers in hot summer. Camels can drink huge amount of water just at once and then they play and destroy basic infrastructure of waterholes, resulting in water flow on the ground. We plan to resolve the problem through intensive consultations we received from experienced local nomads, by constructing basic metal structure just around artificial resources to allocate these limited water reservoirs for the cheetahs and their prey.  The camels still can meet their water needs from existing natural springs. Each reserve will cost around 1000 $ to ascertain camel-proof water resource and if you might be willing to support us to secure water for the cheetahs, please donate by click here.

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June 19, 2014 2 comments
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Festivals & Conferences

“Bio Ball” was unveiled

by مدیر سایت May 30, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

With goal of global peace message and to educate public people , after unveiling the Iranian National team jersey with its cheetah print, the Asiatic Cheetah- Brazil Worldcup 2014 commission  managed a project called “Children, Environment, Peace and Football”. One of the activities was to choose 32 endangered species of the 32 countries that participate in 2014 World cup and to draw their pictures on a soccer ball. The ball called “Bio Ball” was created by a Mohammad Kebria, A professional painter. On International day of Biodiversity tis ball was unveiled in a special ceremony in DOE conference hall. This ceremony was attended by UN representative in Iran, DOE executive managers, ICS president, Asian cheetah project’s manager and the representative of Iran’s Football federation. Mr. Arash Nooraqayee, who gave the first idea of cheetah icon on national team uniform, explained some of the goals of “Children, Environment, Peace and Football” project.

The “Bio Ball” will be formally presented to the FIFA representative before the tournament.

BioBall

 

 

May 30, 2014 0 comments
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Festivals & Conferences

“Children, Environment, Peace and Football” Festival

by مدیر سایت May 30, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

“Children, Environment, Peace and Football” Festival was held in Tehran’s Milad tower to appreciate the national football team’s support of Asiatic Cheetah and to encourage children and different group of people to a peaceful coexistence with the Environment. This festival was held by ICS & Asiatic Cheetah – world cup 2014 commission.

There were 32 stations, represented the 23 countries of 2014 FIFA World cup and in each station a highly endangered species of that country was introduced to children, as well as a poster of that country’s National Football Team. Children could draw these species and take some pictures with their favorite species.

There was a station where they could draw on a soccer ball. In this part ,a professional painter drew all the endangered species on a ball. However, this ball is going to be unveiled on the Biodiversity day in special ceremony.Children put their finger print on a ball to show their support to keep our planet safe and asking the entire world’s contribution to preserve the Earth.

The children’s drawings will be published in an album and the best ones will be gifted to the ambassadors of the countries that participated in 2014 FIFA World cup.

May 30, 2014 0 comments
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