Explorers of Hope

Last week, we received a report about the sighting of a cheetah by the residents of Kalateh Sadat village. We, who were working in Touran, went to the site with the rangers as part of the “Explorers of Hope” project and talked to the person who had filmed the cheetah. The calmness of the animal and its reluctance to leave the area was a worrying issue for us.

After examining all the evidence, it seemed that the animal had hunted in the same area where there were plenty of gazelles, and that was why it did not leave the place. The rangers of Touran and the experts of the Department of Environment of Miyami city also arrived in the area and we accompanied them.

Considering the lack of further sightings of this cheetah, we hope that it has moved away from this road.

Two important points should be mentioned: Mr. Mousavi emphasizes in the video that the cheetah is weak. We do not see anything suspicious in the video. Generally, people who are not familiar with the physique of the cheetah think that the animal is sick and skinny, while this body shape is part of the evolved anatomy of the Asiatic Cheetah.

The video quality is low and the image is not identifiable. However, considering the proximity of the point where “Mahatab” was recently filmed, we guess that this cheetah is Mahatab. Watch the video report (in Persian) on our YouTube channel.

Due to the pandemic of Covid-19 and its limitations, the Explorers of Hope team was not able to travel in the past months, and their major activities were focused on collecting information from long distances. Finally, they traveled to Joghatay country in cooperation with the Department of Environment of Khorasan province on 28 and 29 July 2021.

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Explorers of Hope team surveyed between Miandasht Wildlife Refuge and Touran Biosphere Reserve to recognize the probable crossing corridor of Cheetah with the accompany of the head of Joghatay’s DOE. For this purpose, they interviewed local people such as farmers, ranchers, and shepherds who are in the rangeland of the area.
In the continuation of surveying, the team visited the probable areas of Cheetah presence reported by the locals and the area’s water sources. The data shows the conclusion that recognizing the potential crossing corridor of cheetahs requires more investigations in northern villages in the Semnan province and the Abass Abad region.

On the 12th of May,2021 the authorities announced the discovery of an Asiatic cheetah carcass around Maimi city.
The carcass, which included the end of the body of a female cheetah, was found by a local rancher. According to the Department of Environment of Semnan Province, the cause of death is still unknown and a long time has passed since it.

In recent days two Asiatic cheetahs have been seen on the side of the Tehran-Mashhad road, around the Abbas Abad area.
Although seeing them is gratifying their nearness to the road is a great alarm.
It is possible that these two cheetahs wanted to cross the road, and in the absence of fences and high-speed vehicles, this could have caused an accident.
The experts of the Iranian Cheetah Society have visited this area and the rangers are patrolling to make sure of these two cheetahs’ safety.