Two members of the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) climbed the highest Iranian peak, Damavand, in the name of Iranian cheetahs. Sahar Dadkhah and Vahid Farid, a young Iranian couple, and their team at Nemouneh Mountaineering Group, made their way through the top of the 5,671-m Damavand aiming to attract attentions for conservation of the Critically Endangered Asiatic cheetah.
The Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) launched the first phase of the cheetah monitoring program across some key cheetah reserves in 2012. Abbas Abad Wildlife Refuge in Esfahan province, central Iran, is one of these key habitats. In collaboration with Esfahan Department of the Environment, Naeen Office of Department of the Environment, and Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP), ICS’ camera traps on water points in Abbas Abad have recently captured an array of large to medium-size mammal species, including the Endangered Persian leopard.
The camera trapping survey in Abbas Abad will continue throughout this summer and fall 2015 focusing on areas with high likelihood of cheetah occurrence.
In collaboration with Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project and Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) launches training workshops for rangers in cheetah reserves of Iran. Rangers from four different cheetah reserves attended the first workshop at Kavir National Park, Semnan province. Last updates about the status of cheetahs in Iran, conservation efforts in different sites, preliminary results of the recent camera-trapping studies, and working with local people and community-based management of cheetah reserves were among the issues presented in the workshop. These series of workshops are going to be continued in other cheetah reserves during 2015/2016.
The event, jointly held by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Iran Department of the Environment, celebrated collaboration of Iranian conservationists and athletes aiming for education and environmental awareness purposes. Iranian Cheetah Society’s CEO, Morteza Eslami, received the prize in the final ceremony from the national managers of the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project. Additionally, the head of the Society’s documentary production unit, Fathollah Amiri, awarded as the best environmental documentary maker.
The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports of Iran, deputies of Iran Department of the Environment, environmental NGOs and activists, and a number of Iranian top athletes attended the final ceremony.
Very recently a video of a captive cheetah has rapidly spread on the web, in which apparently the owner is talking with the animal in Farsi. The Iranian Cheetah Society is investigating the originality of the video and has tried to contact the video creator. It is not understood if the video is actually captured in Iran, or in one of the Persian Gulf countries where keeping exotic animals like cheetahs are common, and if the animal in this video is an Asiatic cheetah. It is not possible to draw any firm conclusion based on this video as Asiatic and African cheetahs are morphologically are almost look alike. The Iranian Cheetah Society encourages the public to contact us with any information about this video at: [email protected]
The manager of the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project and the project vet presented the most recent news about the two Iranian cheetahs in captivity in the 22nd WildTalk seminar. Houman Jowkar, CACP, talked about the captive breeding program for the Asiatic cheetah in Iran and the steps has been taken to establish the program with two captive-raised male and female Asiatic cheetahs. Afterwards, Iman Memarian, the project’s vet, answered to questions by attendants.
The male cheetah, known as Koushki, was confiscated from a local herder in Touran National Park in 2008 at only 7-8 months old. Prior to moving to Tehran for the captive breeding program, Koushki, now 7 years old, was keeping at a large enclosure in semi-captivity conditions at Miandasht Wildlife Refuge. Delbar, the female cheetah, was recovered from a poacher from the same area in 2012 and kept at a small enclosure in Touran National Park. Both individuals are now closely monitored by a team of Iranian experts from CACP and international advisors in an enclosure in Iran’s capital Tehran.
The WildTalk seminars are held by Iranian Cheetah Society, in collaboration with Entesharat Fanni Publications and Zistboom News Agency.
The second Yahya Prize ceremony took place at Ezzatolah Entezami’s House Museum, Tehran, on the evening of July 25. Established by ICS in 2014 through a generous donation by an Iranian artist couple, Mojtaba Ramzi and Paridokht Moshkzad, the Yahya Prize recognises individual rangers who has suffered serious injuries to protect Iran’s wildlife and natural environment. This year the Award honoured six rangers from different provinces across Iran, who has been selected by the award committee through an intensive five-month effort.
The 2015 Yahya Prize ceremony was held in collaboration with University of Environment (UOE), Iran Environment and Wildlife Watch (IEW), and Zistboom Environment News Agency, and delegates from Iran Department of the Environment, Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project, Ezzatolah Entezami’s House Museum, Iran Wildlife Pictures Institute, and several Iranian NGOs and nature lovers attended the event.
photos by: Ehsan Janati
The Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) 2014/2015 Annual Report has just been released! This annual report highlights the work and progress ICS has made in the Persian year (1393) ending 20 March 2015. The highlights in 2014 include: updates from ICS’ Cheetah and Leopard Programmes, scientific and popular publications and participation in international and national conferences, education campaigns in Iran, the Yahya Award for rangers, and ICS partners in 2014. You can download the Farsi report here.
ICS is a non-governmental, non-profit organization devoted to saving the rich but fast disappearing biodiversity of Iran. Carnivores are an essential priority within the ICS activities and various research and conservation projects have been implemented for several species, in particular the Asiatic cheetah and Persian leopards.
The new issue of the Society’s newsletter has just been released. Our top stories feature news from ICS’ cheetah monitoring project, top camera trap prizes won by ICS in late 2014 and early 2015, successful capture of a dog-eating leopard, and education activities in different parts of the country.
Download the newsletter here.
Analysis of new camera-trap pictures captured in some cheetah reserves in Yazd province revealed astonishing results. Researchers from the Iranian Cheetah Society has identified a male cheetah that in late 2014 has travelled more than 215 km across South Khorasan and Yazd provinces!
The male cheetah first detected by a team from National Geographic in Naybandan Wildlife Refuge on December 7, 2011. The new photo is captured on December 1, 2014, in Dare Anjir Wildlife Refuge.
Long distance movements of the Asiatic cheetah has been documented previously. Researchers from the Society has documented such movements in central Iran in 2013 in a paper published at Oryx, the International Journal of Conservation. Using camera-trap data from surveys conducted between 2009 and 2013, ICS researchers identified an adult female cheetah who moved in multiple occasions approximately 150 km between two reserves in central Iran. Additionally, her cubs after becoming independent, ranged multiple reserves in the three consecutive year of the camera-trapping surveys.
Very little is known about the movement ecology and ranging behavior of the Asiatic cheetah. No information is yet available if this long-distance movement of Asiatic cheetahs are consequence of the recent anthropogenic pressures and habitat fragmentations or just natural consequences of the subspecies’ response to its habitat in Iran. Given the fact that cheetahs in Iran are not confined to the small and isolated habitats inside the protected areas and almost all these reserves are under anthropogenic pressure and are isolated by roads and human infrastructure, stress on a necessity to evaluate the cheetah’s ranging pattern and habitat requirements in Iran, and to identify biological corridors connecting the current habitats in the country.
The Iranian Cheetah Society is running the nation-wide cheetah monitoring project in cooperation with Iran Department of the Environment, Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project, local wildlife authorities on the cheetah reserves.
Postal Address: P.O.Box 14155-8549, Tehran, Iran
Office: Unit 2, Number 3, Jomhouri Ave, Tehran, Tehran Province
Whatsapp: +98 (935) 2450054
Email:
info[at]wildlife[dot]ir
