ICS News

The Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) has released a report this week, demonstrating five years of intensive camera-trapping surveys of the Critically Endangered Asiatic cheetah in 11 sites across the subspecies’ range in Iran. As the most comprehensive effort to assess the conservation status of the Asiatic cheetah to date, scientists from ICS surveyed 467 camera-trap stations during over 28,585 trap-nights across 12,955.8 km² of the core of the Asiatic cheetah habitat in central and north-eastern Iran. Findings from this 5-year survey led to ICS’ announcement about the critical status of the Asiatic cheetah, urging all the partners and decision-makers at both national and international levels to maximize their efforts for safeguarding the last population of the Asiatic cheetah from extinction.

The ICS’ country-wide population assessment of the Asiatic cheetah has been a collaboration between ICS, the Iranian Department of Environment and the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP), and has been generously funded by several international and Iranian funders and donors, including the Iran UNDP, La Palmyre Zoo, Association Francaise des Parcs Zoologiques (AFdPZ), Prince Bernhard Nature Fund (PBNF), Stichting SPOTS, the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), Parcs des Felins & SOS, Rufford Small Grants Foundation, and WWF INNO Program. The ICS’ report is in Farsi (Persian) with English Abstract and can be downloaded here.

ICS received a national environmental award for the organization’s remarkable conservation efforts across Iran.

During a ceremony held for celebrating the World Environment Day, Dr. Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President of Iran and Head of the Iranian Department of Environment, announced the winners of the 12th National Environment Award of Iran. The Award selected ICS among its winners, specifying ICS’ educational awareness campaigns and conservation actions for the Asiatic cheetah, launching the countrywide cheetah monitoring program, and leading the Yahya Prize for recognizing the distinguished Iranian rangers. The award was received by ICS Co-Founder and deputy of Board of Directors, Morteza Eslami.

ICS held a series of awareness workshops for Tejarat Bank University’s faculty members and students. During the workshops, ICS experts delivered baseline information about the status and conservation needs of the endangered biodiversity of Iran, with a focus on the Critically-Endangered Asiatic cheetah. ICS is planning to run similar educational workshops at a number of Iranian universities and research institutes across the country.

New camera-trap photographs from Dare Anjir Wildlife Refuge in Southern Iran confirm the persistence of a previously identified coalition of male cheetahs.

The cheetahs photographed in Dare Anjir are actually two out three cheetah brothers knowns to us since the first phase of ICS’ countrywide monitoring program in 2012. Once a hotspot of cheetah occurrence in Iran, very few cheetahs have been verified to persist in Yazd Province recently. Worse, there has been no confirmed evidence of female cheetahs in the 75,000-km² Yazd Province, including Dareh Anjir Wildlife Refuge, since 2012. ICS has released a statement about the critical status of cheetahs in Iran, urging national and international collaborators to act to save the last population of Asiatic cheetahs.

ICS member contributed in renewing “cheetah crossing” warning signs in vehicle-cheetah collisions hotspots in a key reserve in eastern Iran. Reza Hosseini, ICS member in Birjand City of South Khorasan Province, collaborated with the local office of the Iranian Department of Environment to place nine new warning signs and maintain the available sign inventory in three hotspots in periphery of Naybandan Wildlife Refuge, a critical cheetah reserve in eastern Iran.

A recent study led by ICS has shown that between 2004 and 2016, at least 14 Critically-Endangered Asiatic cheetahs have been killed on roads in Iran, accounting for about one-third of verified mortalities of the species in the country. Experts believe that low cost tools such as the wildlife crossing warning signs increase awareness among drivers. Simultaneously, authorities must increase enforcement for effective mitigation of road collisions.

In September 2016, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) launched a campaign to encourage the Iranian government to take immediate actions to save the Critically-Endangered Asiatic cheetah from extinction. In total 9,511 Iranian citizens joined this awareness campaign and signed the petition, including renowned Iranian environmental activists, celebrities, and politicians. In October 2016, ICS submitted the petition to the Executive Office of Iran’s President Rouhani together with an official letter explaining the critical status of Asiatic cheetahs and recommendations for urgent actions. To date, the Executive Office of President Rouhani has sent six letters to various governmental bodies and ministries in support of considering this campaign. ICS hopes this campaign, as well as jointly launched petitions, can provide the required governmental support to save the Asiatic cheetah from extinction in Iran.