New Report on Asiatic Cheetah Population in Iran...
Iranian Cheetah Society Releases Triennial Report For 2021-2023
ICS Participated in First Cheetah Global Summit held...
Khorshid: The Everlasting Hope of Turan
Explorers of Hope Follow the Trail of a...
A Rare Glimpse of a Persian Leopard Hunting
Facebook Linkedin Twitter Youtube Instagram Telegram
  • Home
  • Projects
    • Asiatic Cheetah Monitoring Population
    • Explorers of Hope
    • Rangers Program
    • Water For Cheetahs
  • Who We Are
    • About Us
    • Executive Team
    • Partner Organizations
    • International Donors of 2023
  • Species
    • Asiatic Cheetah
  • News
    • News Archive
    • Press Room
    • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Download
    • Asiatic Cheetah Population Monitoring Report (2021-2023)
    • 2021-2023 Triennial Activity Report
    • 2019-2020 Biannual Report
    • 2018 report
    • Asiatic Cheetah Infographic
  • Contact
  • DONATE
  • فارسی
Menu
  • Home
  • Projects
    • Asiatic Cheetah Monitoring Population
    • Explorers of Hope
    • Rangers Program
    • Water For Cheetahs
  • Who We Are
    • About Us
    • Executive Team
    • Partner Organizations
    • International Donors of 2023
  • Species
    • Asiatic Cheetah
  • News
    • News Archive
    • Press Room
    • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Download
    • Asiatic Cheetah Population Monitoring Report (2021-2023)
    • 2021-2023 Triennial Activity Report
    • 2019-2020 Biannual Report
    • 2018 report
    • Asiatic Cheetah Infographic
  • Contact
  • DONATE
  • فارسی
Search
Close this search box.
Tag:

Asiatic Cheetah

ICS in News

Two Female Asiatic Cheetahs Identified in Wild in Iran

by pourmir August 30, 2016
written by pourmir 2 minutes read

Conservationists say only two female Asiatic cheetahs are known to be alive in the wild in Iran, which hosts the last surviving population.

Asiatic cheetahs, also known as Iranian cheetahs, are a subspecies of the fastest animal on earth and classified as critically endangered, with fewer than 40 believed to remain in Iran.As part of efforts to raise the animal’s profile, in the past decade cheetahs have been displayed on the national football team’s kit and on stamps, but it has become increasingly imperilled.

Tuesday was Iran’s national cheetah day, marking an event more than two decades ago when a cub named Marita survived an attack by a group of villagers in which his mother and two siblings were killed. Marita became a national symbol.

Morteza Eslami, head of the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS), a Tehran-based NGO, said camera traps in areas with the most Asiatic cheetahs had seen just two females in recent months. “The situation is very critical,” he said. “We have been monitoring the situation closely in the past five years and the population of female Asiatic cheetahs has significantly dropped.” Delaram Ashayeri, an independent conservationist, said: “Unfortunately the number of female cheetahs has been dwindling. In areas where camera traps have been operating for a long time … we are not seeing many female cheetahs or we’re seeing only carcasses.”

In the past 15 years, 48 cheetahs are believed to have died, seven from natural causes, 21 at the hands of farmers, 15 in car accidents and five as a result of hunting.

Of the two female cheetahs believed to be still alive, one is in Turan national park and the other in the nearby Miandasht reserve.

“In some of our other environmental areas we haven’t had any reports of female cheetahs for at least two years now, including in an area near the city of Yazd where only four male cheetahs survive,” Eslami said.

Two Asiatic cheetahs – a male, Koushki, and a female, Delbar – are held in captivity at Tehran’s Pardisan Park research centre. They have not yet successfully mated.

August 30, 2016 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Asiatic Cheetah Conservation ProgramEducation and Capacity Building

The Asiatic cheetah inforgraphic poster: call for collaboration

by مدیر سایت January 6, 2016
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

The Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) has used infographic posters as an education tool during the last few years. By combining “information” and “graphic”, infographic posters can act as innovative educational tools for a variety of conservation-oriented purposes to illustrate the knowledge in a simple but comprehensive way for the public.

Our team is now working on a new poster about the Critically Endangered Asiatic cheetah. We would like to produce this poster in as much different languages as possible, so to raise global awareness about the vanishing Asiatic cheetah. To date with the help of our supporters and friends, we have been able to translate the poster into 15 languages, including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic, Swedish, Dutch, Catalan, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Turkish.

We still need your help! We need volunteers who are either skilled in, or their mother tongue is, one of the following languages highlighted in the below link: https://poeditor.com/join/project/dMWS4rRlcW

Please join us in this effort to spread the word about the Critically Endangered Asiatic cheetah in its last stronghold!

January 6, 2016 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Public Relations

The Iranian Cheetah Society investigates the alleged cheetah video

by مدیر سایت August 11, 2015
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

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]

alleged cheetah video
August 11, 2015 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ICS Newsletter

Just Released: ICS’ Winter 2014/2015 Newsletter

by مدیر سایت June 6, 2015
written by مدیر سایت 0 minutes read

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.

June 6, 2015 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Asiatic Cheetah Conservation ProgramICS in News

It’s still possible to save the Asiatic cheetah, the world’s second-rarest cat

by مدیر سایت July 13, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 4 minutes read

The Conservation: The last few surviving Asiatic cheetahs live in Iran, where they stalk the hyper-arid landscape, where temperatures swing from -30°C to 50°C. This is the only place in the world a cheetah, most of which live in Africa, will experience snow.

Iran is home to the last known population of Asiatic cheetah, a creature which once roamed across vast ranges of west and south Asian countries, from the Middle East to India. Today, the cheetahs are known only from around 15 reserves in Iran, all officially protected by the country’s government.

Together with genetic distinctiveness from their African cousins, the Asiatic cheetahs are smaller and more slightly built. Iranian biologists were surprised to learn that the Asiatic cheetahs are mainly found in mountainous regions – a very different proposition from the view expected from wildlife documentaries in which cheetahs pursue sprinting gazelles across open plains.

Camera traps are reliable tools to try to gauge the population of these spotted cats, whose markings are individually unique. However, this technology has been rarely applied to cheetahs across their global range due to the paucity of individuals and their elusive nature. Due to political sanctions, the necessary equipment is not easily available in Iran, and this has prevented a thorough assessment of the species in the past.

Thanks to various donors and partners, including Panthera and Dutch NGO Stichting SPOTS, a monitoring program was recently launched that would fill the gaps in our knowledge about the cheetah that is essential for its protection. Even so the results were surprising, revealing only 40 to 70 cheetahs across the country – smaller even than previous estimates of up to 100. Listed as critically endangered by the IUCN, the Asiatic cheetah is among the rarest cats in the world at subspecies level, after the Amur leopard.

Guarding Iran’s last cheetahs

Around 125 game guards protect the cheetah’s range in Iran as Cheetah Guardians, thanks to tremendous efforts of the Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP), the Iranian Department of the Environment (DoE), and UNDP in Iran, which tried to double the number of guards employed by the DoE during the past decade. Equipped with 4WD vehicles and motorbikes, each guard is responsible for protecting around 640km2 of the landscape, an indication that more forces are needed.

In order to safeguard the cheetahs, the DoE established more reserves while existing reserves received more resources. In the Iran’s northeast Miandasht Wildlife Refuge has been a key site for the cheetahs after a threefold boom in prey species. As a result, the cheetahs have established a breeding population there, vital to help re-colonise other reserves.

As is the case for many wildlife species, the cheetah was little known among the public ten years ago. But with the animals’ plight appealing to the media it has garnered considerable coverage, leaving the public in no doubt about the state of the cheetah’s decline. With united effort from government and NGOs, this year the cheetah even became the first species to appear emblazoned on the Iranian national football team’s jerseyduring the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

So as a symbol of the nation’s wildlife, the public awareness and support the cheetah receives is an important step to ensure its long-term survival. But it is not enough. It is vital to build an expert opinion on what to do about the species’ critically small population, rising mortality from human causes, such as traffic collisions, and falling birth rates.

While further research is needed, we know that Asiatic cheetahs have much lower genetic diversity than African cheetahs, but we are still hopeful that better connectivity between the various reserves to allow cheetahs to intermingle could maintain a basic level of gene flow between small cheetah populations.

We need the authorities to confront and defeat plans for property development and infrastructure such as roads, mines and railways within the main cheetah reserves. For example, a road to be constructed through Bafq Protected Area in central Iran was a major concern, but the DoE managed to stop construction and propose an alternative route.

Cheetahs are known to kill small livestock, and claims of cheetahs killing young camel, sheep, and goat are rife among shepherds. Recent cases in different parts of the country have raised concerns that cheetahs could be killed by protective herders. At least five have been known to be killed by herders since 2010, twice the number killed in the previous decade. To try to prevent this, the Iranian Department of Environment and CACP established a programme to compensate for cheetah predation for five years.

On August 31 1994 a cheetah was rescued from dying of thirst in central Iran. Named Marita, for nearly ten years she was the only evidence of the existence of cheetahs outside Africa. In 2007, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) designated August 31 as National Cheetah Day, an annual event to draw people’s attention to conservation issues in Iran. The cheetah is lucky to have a day bearing its name, but to survive they will need much more than luck.

July 13, 2014 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ICS in News

Iran tries to save Asiatic Cheetah from extinction

by pourmir June 27, 2014
written by pourmir 3 minutes read

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran is rushing to try to save one of the world’s critically endangered species, the Asiatic cheetah, and bring it back from the verge of extinction in its last remaining refuge.

The Asiatic cheetah, an equally fast cousin of the African cat, once ranged from the Red Sea to India, but its numbers shrunk over the past century to the point that it is now hanging on by a thin thread – an estimated 50 to 70 animals remaining in Iran, mostly in the east of the country. That’s down from as many as 400 in the 1990s, its numbers plummeting due to poaching, the hunting of its main prey – gazelles – and encroachment on its habitat.

Cheetahs have been hit by cars and killed in fights with sheep dogs, since shepherds have permits to graze their flocks in areas where the cheetahs live, said Hossein Harati, the local head of the environmental department and park rangers at the Miandasht Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Iran.

At the reserve, rangers are caring for a male cheetah named Koushki, rescued by a local resident who bought it as a cub from a hunter who killed its mother around seven years ago, said Morteza Eslami Dehkordi, the director of Iranian Cheetah Society. “Since he was interested in environment protection, he bought the cub from him and handed it to the Department of Environment,” he said. The cheetah was named after his rescuer’s family name.

With help from the United Nations, the Iranian government has stepped up efforts to rescue the species – also with an eye to the potential for tourism to see the rare cat.

Rangers have been equipped with night vision goggles and cameras have been set up around cheetah habitats to watch for any threat. They have also been fitting cheetahs with U.N.-supplied GPS collars so their movements can be tracked. Authorities built shelters in arid areas where the cats can have access to water. They’ve also reached out to nearby communities, training them how to deal with cheetahs and promising compensation for livestock killed by cheetahs to prevent shepherds or farmers from hunting them.

Also, any development projects in cheetah habitats must be approved by Iran’s Environmental Department.

The efforts were given a symbolic boost at the ongoing World Cup in Brazil, where Iran’s team wore images of the cheetah on their uniform. The country has also named August 31 as Iran’s National Cheetah Day since 2006.

Once known as “hunting leopards,” Asiatic cheetahs were traditionally trained for emperors and kings in Iran and India to hunt gazelles. They disappeared across the Middle East about 100 years ago, although there were sightings in Saudi Arabia until the 1950s. They vanished in India in 1947 and ranged in Central Asia as far as Kazakhstan up to the 1980s.

Gary Lewis, with the U.N. Development Program, said the dropping numbers in Iran are alarming.

“There are no other Asiatic cheetahs like the one that you have here in Iran, so it is essential for us as human beings to conserve our biodiversity by protecting this animal,” he said.

Iran also hopes to attract more foreign tourists under moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who has vowed outreach to the West.

“It is an endangered species. The cheetah is considered to be one of the most charismatic cats,” said Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, who heads Iran’s Department of the Environment.

“It is important for, for example, our ecotourism when many people who enjoy coming just to visit our natural habitats for the cheetah and to see, to have a glimpse of the cheetah.” said Ebtekar. “So we are working very seriously with international organizations as well as our national specialists and experts to protect this species.”

African cheetahs are also a threatened species, with an estimated 10,000 adults remaining.

June 27, 2014 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ICS in News

Iran is rushing to try to save one of the world’s critically endangered species, the Asiatic cheetah

by مدیر سایت June 27, 2014
written by مدیر سایت 3 minutes read

AP Photo/Vahid Salemi

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran is rushing to try to save one of the world’s critically endangered species, the Asiatic cheetah, and bring it back from the verge of extinction in its last remaining refuge.

The Asiatic cheetah, an equally fast cousin of the African cat, once ranged from the Red Sea to India, but its numbers shrunk over the past century to the point that it is now hanging on by a thin thread – an estimated 50 to 70 animals remaining in Iran, mostly in the east of the country. That’s down from as many as 400 in the 1990s, its numbers plummeting due to poaching, the hunting of its main prey – gazelles – and encroachment on its habitat.

Cheetahs have been hit by cars and killed in fights with sheep dogs, since shepherds have permits to graze their flocks in areas where the cheetahs live, said Hossein Harati, the local head of the environmental department and park rangers at the Miandasht Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Iran.

At the reserve, rangers are caring for a male cheetah named Koushki, rescued by a local resident who bought it as a cub from a hunter who killed its mother around seven years ago, said Morteza Eslami Dehkordi, the director of Iranian Cheetah Society. “Since he was interested in environment protection, he bought the cub from him and handed it to the Department of Environment,” he said. The cheetah was named after his rescuer’s family name.

With help from the United Nations, the Iranian government has stepped up efforts to rescue the species – also with an eye to the potential for tourism to see the rare cat.

Rangers have been equipped with night vision goggles and cameras have been set up around cheetah habitats to watch for any threat. They have also been fitting cheetahs with U.N.-supplied GPS collars so their movements can be tracked. Authorities built shelters in arid areas where the cats can have access to water. They’ve also reached out to nearby communities, training them how to deal with cheetahs and promising compensation for livestock killed by cheetahs to prevent shepherds or farmers from hunting them.

Also, any development projects in cheetah habitats must be approved by Iran’s Environmental Department.

The efforts were given a symbolic boost at the ongoing World Cup in Brazil, where Iran’s team wore images of the cheetah on their uniform. The country has also named August 31 as Iran’s National Cheetah Day since 2006.

Once known as “hunting leopards,” Asiatic cheetahs were traditionally trained for emperors and kings in Iran and India to hunt gazelles. They disappeared across the Middle East about 100 years ago, although there were sightings in Saudi Arabia until the 1950s. They vanished in India in 1947 and ranged in Central Asia as far as Kazakhstan up to the 1980s.

Gary Lewis, with the U.N. Development Program, said the dropping numbers in Iran are alarming.

“There are no other Asiatic cheetahs like the one that you have here in Iran, so it is essential for us as human beings to conserve our biodiversity by protecting this animal,” he said.

Iran also hopes to attract more foreign tourists under moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who has vowed outreach to the West.

“It is an endangered species. The cheetah is considered to be one of the most charismatic cats,” said Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, who heads Iran’s Department of the Environment.

“It is important for, for example, our ecotourism when many people who enjoy coming just to visit our natural habitats for the cheetah and to see, to have a glimpse of the cheetah.” said Ebtekar. “So we are working very seriously with international organizations as well as our national specialists and experts to protect this species.”

African cheetahs are also a threatened species, with an estimated 10,000 adults remaining.

June 27, 2014 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ICS News

Footages of Iran

by مدیر سایت May 11, 2013
written by مدیر سایت 1 minutes read

“If you are keen to see some stunning shots of the Asiatic cheetahs in extremely arid areas of Iran or massive Persian leopards in highlands, visit ICS on “youtube” to see these iconic species within their natural habitats in Iran. Besides monitoring Iran’s cats, the ICS is producing documentary films in order to spread the knowledge in the communities about the species and their survival. All these shots have been captured since 2011 using camera traps. You can see group life of the Asiatic cheetahs as well as their signing behavior together with Persian leopards. Also, educational clips are also added.

Visit ICS’ YOUTUBE page to see Iran’s wildlife shots.

May 11, 2013 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts

Help us save the Asiatic cheetah from extinction


Latest News

  • New Report on Asiatic Cheetah Population in Iran Released
  • Iranian Cheetah Society Releases Triennial Report For 2021-2023
  • ICS Participated in First Cheetah Global Summit held in Ethiopia
  • Khorshid: The Everlasting Hope of Turan
  • Explorers of Hope Follow the Trail of a Cheetah in a Rural Area

Contact Us

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

Facebook Linkedin Twitter Youtube Instagram Telegram
Proudly Hosted By Parspack Servers

Latest News

New Report on Asiatic Cheetah Population in Iran Released

Iranian Cheetah Society Releases Triennial Report on Wildlife Conservation and Asiatic Cheetah Conservation

Iranian Cheetah Society Releases Triennial Report For 2021-2023

Iranian Cheetah Society team with the Laurie Marker from CCF

ICS Participated in First Cheetah Global Summit held in Ethiopia

Asiatic Cheetah cubs, Khorshid Family

Khorshid: The Everlasting Hope of Turan

Partners

Iranian Cheetah Society
  • Home
  • Projects
    • Asiatic Cheetah Monitoring Population
    • Explorers of Hope
    • Rangers Program
    • Water For Cheetahs
  • Who We Are
    • About Us
    • Executive Team
    • Partner Organizations
    • International Donors of 2023
  • Species
    • Asiatic Cheetah
  • News
    • News Archive
    • Press Room
    • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Download
    • Asiatic Cheetah Population Monitoring Report (2021-2023)
    • 2021-2023 Triennial Activity Report
    • 2019-2020 Biannual Report
    • 2018 report
    • Asiatic Cheetah Infographic
  • Contact
  • DONATE
  • فارسی