Gallery Archives - Iranian Cheetah Society

Between October and November 2016, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) surveyed Siah-Kouh National Park and Protected Area after a four-year gap. This camera-trapping survey is a part of ICS’s nation-wide cheetah monitoring program to assess the population status of cheetahs in multiple reserves in central and north-eastern Iran.

More than 26,000 photos and videos of wildlife were obtained during this survey using 22 remotely-triggered camera traps. No photograph of the Critically-Endangered Asiatic cheetah was obtained during this survey. The last known hard evidence of cheetah occurrence in Siah-Kouh was obtained in 2012. However, several photographs of sympatric large and medium-sized carnivores were gathered during this survey, including the gray wolf, caracal, Blanford’s fox, and Rüppell’s fox.

Siah-Kouh National Park and Protected Area are two reserves together covering about 2,000 km² in the remote desert region between Yazd and Esfahan Provinces in Central Iran. Prolonged drought and more than 300 free-ranging camels grazing both Protected Area and National Park are perceived as main threats to wildlife of Siah-Kouh. The present survey was conducted in collaboration with Yazd Provincial Office of Iran Department of Environment, Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project, and a local NGO in Ardakan County.

During August-September 2016, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) surveyed Naybandan Wildlife Refuge in South Khorasan Province. As the most intensive effort ever to monitor the Critically Endangered Asiatic cheetah in Naybandan, 52 camera traps were systematically set up over the reserve to gather information about the presence of cheetah individuals identified in 2012-2013 and 2014-2015 surveys, occurrence of any new cheetahs, and movement behaviour of cheetahs.

Naybandan Wildlife Refuge extends over 15,000 km² of remote mountainous deserts in south-central Iran, not far from Iranian borders with Afghanistan. The present camera-trapping survey was carried out as part of ICS’s third phase of nation-wide cheetah monitoring program. During this survey, the ICS team surveyed the central and northern parts of Naybandan for the first time. The two-month survey has resulted in more 50,000 photographs of Naybandan wildlife, including the Asiatic cheetah, striped hyena, caracal, wildcat, Blanford’s fox, sand fox, and golden jackal, bezoar goat, wild sheep, and chinkara. The ICS team is now analysing the cheetah photographs to determine if any new cheetah individual has been photo-captured in Naybandan. The present Naybandan survey has been conducted in collaboration with Tabas Office of South Khorasan Department of Environment, CACP, and Part Wildlife Discovery Institute.