First-ever Asiatic Cheetah cubs are born today in the captive breeding center in Iran. Mom and the cubs are healthy. This page will be updated with the most recent news.
Update 1: Two of the cubs are female. Cubs are born during a cesarean.
Update 2: All three cubs are healthy but the mother didn’t accept the cubs yet. All experts from various countries are in touch with the field team.
Together with researchers from WWF, Iran Department of Environment and the Humboldt University of Berlin, ICS researchers have published the first confirmed evidence of transboundary leopard movements between Azerbaijan and Iran in the Caucasus Ecoregion.
It has been speculated for a long time that Persian leopards in Azerbaijan and Armenia might be connected with leopard populations in the Iranian Caucasus, or even depend on these populations as a source for dispersing individuals. However, no confirmed evidence of leopard movements between Iran and either of these two countries had been documented. Comparing photos of a Persian leopard poached in Gilan Province of Iran with camera-trap photographs obtained 30 km away (straight-line distance) from Hirkan National Park in Azerbaijan allowed our researchers to identify this leopard. This incident supports a previous ICS study that predicted the Talysh Mountains to be a critical linkage for connecting the border landscape between Iran, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the presumed source leopard population in the Alborz Mountains in Northern Iran.
ICS’ research on Persian leopards in the Iranian Caucasus is generously supported by World Land Trust (WLT) and Iran Department of Environment.
A new study involving the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) researchers shows that conservation of leopard populations in the Caucasus is tied to regional cooperation between range countries.
Published in Biological Conservation , the study reveals that suitable leopard habitats in the Iranian Caucasus are likely to be fragmented into two main patches of collectively over 20,000 km2: (1) the Alborz landscape which hosts the larger leopard nucleus and majority of breeding occurrences, and (2) the boundary landscape along borders with Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Only 30% of these landscapes are officially protected. By modeling the connectivity between these two core patches in north-western Iran, the study show that persistence of the leopard population in the boundary landscape and the broader Lesser Caucasus Mountains is dependent on trans-boundary movements through southern Azerbaijan. Thus, it is a priority that international collaboration secures the leopard’s conservation in the wider landscape spanning the borders of Caucasian countries.
ICS is now launching a large-scale corridor assessment focusing in Gilan and Ardabil provinces to assess the value of protecting the proposed corridors and to delineate priority areas for range-wide leopard conservation. ICS’ findings will also be used to support a proposal that Iran Department of the Environment should grant legal protection to certain areas, and to explore opportunities for a regional cooperation between Iran and the southern Caucasus countries.
The ICS’ Caucasus leopard project in northwestern Iran is supported by Iran Department of the Environment and World Land Trust.
“As one of the least known cats of Iran, sand cat is a small cat weighting normally no more than three kilograms which has been verified from a few localities in Iran. The species has been rarely studied properly across its global range, including Iran. Recently, “Sarzamin-e-Man” (meaning My Land) monthly magazine has featured this elusive and fantastic cat in its November issue which has been authored by the ICS’ CEO, Morteza Eslami with nice images taken by Iranian wildlife photographer, Fariborz Heidari. Formerly, a number of other Iranian carnivores were also featured by the magazine, authored by the ICS’ experts on brown bear, Persian leopard and grey wolf.
Cover page of “Sarzamin-e-Man””
“Wildlife Extra introduced the ICS as Good Cause of Month in September 2010. As an invaluable internet source for wildlife news, the UK website announces different NGOs working to save the wildlife on a monthly basis. Last August, the ICS’ Persian leopard efforts have been presented on the Wildlife Extra website which is highly visited. You can see the ICS’ Good Cause of Month here.“
Postal Address: P.O.Box 14155-8549, Tehran, Iran
Office: Unit 2, Number 3, Jomhouri Ave, Tehran, Tehran Province
Tel / Fax: 98 (21) 66572896
Email:
info[at]wildlife[dot]ir
