The Iranian Cheetah Society participates in a ceremony of the Children’s Day in Tehran, introducing several environmental games and awareness materials it has developed during the last decade. The ceremony is open to public between October 6th and 11th at Iran Wildlife and Nature Museum (Darabad) in the Iran’s capital Tehran.
We are busy with the second phase of our nation-wide cheetah monitoring program in several key reserves in Yazd province. During this summer we have focused our trapping efforts on water points, as water scarcity in this region forces many wildlife species, including cheetahs, to visit water points more frequently. Here you can see some of these pictures obtained from Dare-Anjir Wildlife Refuge in central Iran. The Iranian Cheetah Society’s cheetah monitoring program is running in collaboration with Iran Department of the Environment and Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project.
New pictures from the Iranian Cheetah Society’s nation-wide cheetah monitoring program show the coalition continuously photo-trapped in Dare-Anjir Wildlife Refuge since 2011. The three brothers, named as “Ardalan”, “Ardavan”, and “Arsalan”, were first recorded with their mother in Siah-Kouh National Park, Yazd province, in 2010. Since then, the coalition has established itself in Dare-Anjir and has been recorded several times in different locations.
Ardalan in Dare Anjir Wildlife Refuge
Interestingly, a new male has been photo-trapped recently in the area. This male, named as “Homino”, seems to follow the coalition and has been photographed with at least of the male cheetahs from the coalition.
Homino in Dare Anjir Wildlife Refuge
Iranian Cheetah Society runs the second phase of the nation-wide cheetah monitoring program in collaboration with Yazd Department of the Environment and Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project. The program launched in August 2015 and is expected to continue in a number of key cheetah reserves during this fall.
In late August 2015, staff of North Khorasan Department of the Environment photographed a female cheetah with three cubs in Miandasht Wildlife Refuge, north-eastern Iran. Experts from the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) compared this photo with camera-trap pictures obtained from the country-scale demography assessment of cheetahs in Iran running by ICS (here). We are thrilled to inform that that the new cheetah mother has been photographed in 2013 as a cheetah cub in another family of a female cheetah and three cubs!
This finding is crucial as very little is known about the population demography and reproduction biology of the Critically Endangered Asiatic cheetahs. In collaboration with the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project, Iran Department of the Environment, the nation-wide cheetah monitoring project is running by ICS across multiple reserves in north-eastern and central Iran.
The 21st issue of Yuznameh, the internal newsletter of the Iranian Cheetah Society in Farsi, just released. Our top story features the recently discovered long-distance movement of a male cheetah in central Iran (here). Also highlighted are: the second year of Yahya Prize, updates from the Persian leopard project in northeastern Iran, news from the nation-wide cheetah monitoring program, the Iranian Cheetah Society’s scientific and popular publications, wildlife seminars, etc.
The first cheetah airplane in the world, an Airbus A320 belonging to Meraj Airlines, made its first flight on 13 September 2015 at 08:00 from Tehran to Mashhad. Meraj Airlines started its collaborations in educational awareness activities with the Iranian Cheetah Society in winter 2015.
The Persian Leopard Project in North-eastern Iran led by ICS’ senior researcher Mohammad Farhadinia, successfully radio-collared another male leopard in Tandoureh National Park in Razavi Khorasan province. As Mohammad’s PhD study with University of Oxford’s WildCRU and in collaboration with Iran Department of the Environment and Panthera, the project seeks to address a number of ecological and conservation questions regarding the persistence of Persian leopards on fragmented key habitats in northeastern Iran along borders with Turkmenistan.
The new leopard, a young male of about 3-4 years old, was named “Kaveh”, after one of the hard-working research assistants in the project. The project has so far successfully radio-collared three other adult male leopards in this reserve. A team of Iranian documentary makers are closely filming the project for a documentary which is planned to be launched in 2017/18.
In collaboration with Enghelab Sport Complex for Women, Iranian Cheetah Society run a crossfit game during the Cheetah National Day ceremony. The event focused on raising awareness on the status and conservation needs of the Asiatic cheetah in Iran.
The Yayha Prize, an award for Iranian wardens hosted by ICS, featured in a popular family TV show on Iran’s National TV. A gift photo of Kushki, the Iranian male cheetah in captivity, by one of the ICS’ members was also shown in the show. The show, hosted by Iranian actor and comedian Rambod Javan, is believed to be one of the most watched TV shows in Iran.
Read more about the Yahya Prize here.
The ninth annual ceremony of the Cheetah National Day was successfully held in Tehran, as well as in several populated areas in periphery of the cheetah reserves across 13 Iranian provinces. The event included numerous educational and awareness activities for both adult and children focusing on the gloomy status of cheetahs in Iran, the last stronghold of the subspecies in Asia. The ceremony’s main slogan was #70survivors, referring to the total number of cheetah believed to exist in Iran.
The Cheetah National Day launches every year by the Iranian Cheetah Society, and Darkouba Game Company, Plan for the Land Society, Pars Herpetological Institute, ID & Aborz, The Environment Society of Rajaei University, Tehran Zoo were the active collaborators in this year.
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Office: Unit 2, Number 3, Jomhouri Ave, Tehran, Tehran Province
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Email:
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