Hosted by the city of Aligudarz in Lorestan province, the first seminar namely as
As 5th year of celebration, Cheetah Day Festival is going to be held since 7 to 9 August in Tehran and several cities across Iran. The festival is organized by 21 governmental and non-governmental organizations in Iran, funded by Tehran Municipality and Iran Khodro which is the largest car manufacturer in the Middle East. After holding for half-decade, the Cheetah Day Festival is the largest wildlife-based gathering in Iran which attracts huge media coverage on benefit of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah.
The festival has been hosted in various locations in previous years, such as Tehran zoo or Tehran Museum of Natural History. Now, 2011 festival will be held in Golestan Historical Palace with a backbone of more than 200 years, located south of the capital to increase awareness of this part of the more than 12 million people of Tehran.
31 August has been named as Cheetah Day in Iran which dates back to 1994 when a cheetah was rescued from unaware people after losing her mother with two siblings on a waterhole in central Iran. Since then, numerous educational programs have been organized in various parts of Iran so now a majority of Iranians are aware that their country is the last stronghold.
Recently, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) is working to educate local people and nomads in Oshtorankouh Protected Area, western Iran where owns the highest human-caused mortalities in this part of the country. The project is funded by Parc des Felins (France), Amersfoort Zoo (the Netherlands) and Iranian DoE with a wide scope of activities. Below, you can see an image report of recent activities including a leopard seminar as well as field educational meetings.
Entrance of leopard seminar
City’s representative to the Iranian Parliament
Leopard speech
Brown bear speech
Acknowledging partners
Shol Abad, a village with high leopard mortalities
Educating nomads in the field
During a recent ornithological expedition in June 2011 to Persian Gulf’s islands, a new bird species was identified. Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus) was the new species added to the Iranian bird collection, now 524 species on list. The creature was located in Shidvar Island in the Persian Gulf which its presence was confirmed by Hormozgan DoE’s expert Meisam Ghasemi and the ICS’ Ornithologist Bagher Nezami while investigation breeding birds in the area. There was some rumors of its presence since 2006 but never been confirmed. The brown noddy exists in Pacific Oceans and Atlantic oceans and Red sea and occasional reports are available from Yemen and the UAE, southern Persian Gulf. Shidvar Island is one of the most important bird areas in the country with an area of 90000 hectares. It is among Iranian wetlands under management of the Iranian Department of Environment as a Wildlife Refuge.
Photos: Bagher Nezami/ Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS)
A special feature on Iranian brown bears has been covered in recent Hamshahri Sarzamin-e-Man, a monthly magazine with vast public audience. You can read exciting stories about several years studying the bears in different parts of Iran written by Bagher Nezami, the ICS field biologist. Population studies, behavior and life history of the largest carnivore of the country has been illustrated in the recent paper. Bagher has finished his master on the brown bears and has joined IUCN Bear Specialist Group. The magazine which is so-called as the Iranian National Geographic is published on a monthly basis and features one species. So far, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) has contributed to publish relevant papers on Persian leopard, Asiatic cheetah, grey wolf and now, the brown bear in order to spread knowledge on the species in the Iranian community.
The first training workshop for ICS
During June 2011, ICS trainers held a number of educational workshops for teachers and trainers. In Mid-June, Safura Zavaran lectured for more than 60 teachers from Tehran schools about how to educate students about environment and nature in an official ceremony organized by the Iranian Department of Environment (DoE). A collection of speeches were presented by ICS and DoE experts about wildlife in rural areas, categories of protected areas in Iran, importance of nature protection, etc. Accordingly, Safura presented ICS
In order to celebrate Environment Day, residents of five main villages around Anguran Wildlife Refuge were educated. The educational program was aimed to train local people who are co-existing with the area’s wildlife, especially lynx. Before each workshop, their attitudes about the area’s wildlife were evaluated through a questionnaire survey using images of various species.
The workshops were held within local mosques or high-ranking elders with participation of villages’ people. They were shown a number of wildlife movies taken in Anguran and appropriate explanations were presented. At the end of each workshop, Anguran brochures were distributed among local people.
As part of the workhops, results of two years field research in the area conducted by the ICS’ biologists were shared with local people which were highly welcomed, particularly camera trap images. Also, more than 400 prayers in religious ceremonies were also educated by local religious leader supplemented by brochures.
Anguran Lynx Project has been initiated by the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) since 2009 with collaboration of Zanjan Provinicial Office of Iranian Department of Environment to evaluate status of the species in the country. Located in western Iran, Anguran is one of the most important habitats of the Eurasian lynx as well as Armenian mouflon in Iran which is under official protection since 1970.
Local youth explaining their hunting experience
Shows for local people in mosque
Local herder reading Anguran brochure
Target villages around Anguran
Local hunters in Kalmand Protected Area, central Iran attended in a half-day festival in the city of Mehriz. Organized by Yazd Provincial Office of Iranian Department of Environment, the festival was opened by local high-ranking authorities to spread importance of wildlife protection to the local hunters. Kalmand hosts high diversity of Iranian fauna, including Asiatic cheetah, Persian leopard, onager, goitered gazelle, caracal, ibex and wild sheep which is under official protection since 1996. During 2010, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) implemented an educational program to increase local people
Iran hosts to six different canids which five species were filmed in Abbasabad. Initiated since early summer 2009,
