| Asiatic Cheetah | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Scientific Classification | |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Conservation Status | |
 Critically Endangered | |
The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus), also known as the Iranian cheetah, is a critically endangered cheetah subspecies surviving today only in Iran. It used to occur in India as well, where it is locally extinct.
The Asiatic cheetah lives mainly in Iran's vast central desert in fragmented pieces of remaining suitable habitat. Although once common, the cheetah was driven to extinction in other parts of Southwest Asia from Arabia to India including Afghanistan. As of 2013, only 20 cheetahs were identified in Iran but some areas remained to be surveyed. The total population is estimated to be 40 to 70 individuals, with road accidents accounting for 40% of deaths. Efforts to stop the construction of a road through the core of the Bafq Protected Area were unsuccessful. In order to raise international awareness for the conservation of the Asiatic cheetah, an illustration was used on the jerseys of the Iran national football team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Currently in 2015, it is estimated that approximately 50 cheetahs are living in the wild of Iran, however their numbers are rising.
The Asiatic cheetah separated from its African relative between 32,000 and 67,000 years ago. Along with the Eurasian lynx and the Persian leopard, it is one of three remaining species of large cats in Iran today.
During the British colonial times in India it was called hunting leopard, a name derived from the ones that were kept in captivity in large numbers by the Indian royalty to use in hunting wild antelopes. In Dutch, the cheetah is still called jachtluipaard. The Hindi word चीता cītā is derived from the onal word chitraka meaning "speckled".
The Asiatic cheetah has for a long time been classified as a cheetah subspecies. In September 2009, Stephen J. O'Brien from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity of the National Cancer Institute argued that it is genetically identical to the African cheetah and that the populations had separated about 5,000 years ago, which is not enough time for a subspecific level differentiation.[12][13]
Results of a five-year genetic study involving DNA samples from the wild, zoos and museums in eight countries indicate that African and Asiatic cheetahs are genetically distinct. Molecular sequence comparisons suggest that they separated between 32,000 to 67,000 years ago and that subspecies level differentiation had occurred. The populations in Iran are considered the last remaining representatives of the Asian cheetah lineage.
Asiatic cheetah with two imperial attendants, during the reign of Shah Alam II (AD. 1764).
Asiatic cheetahs are slimmer, lighter and slightly shorter than their African brethren. The head and body of an adult Asiatic cheetah measure from 112–135 cm (44–53 in) with a tail length between 66 and 84 cm (26 and 33 in). It weighs from 34 to 54 kg (75 to 119 lb). Males are slightly larger than the females.
The cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world. It was previously thought that the body temperature of a cheetah increases during a hunt due to high metabolic activity. In a short period of time during a chase, a cheetah may produce 60 times more heat than at rest, with much of the heat, produced from glycolysis, stored to possibly raise the body temperature. The claim was supported by data from experiments in which two cheetahs ran on a treadmill for minutes on end but contradicted by studies in natural settings, which indicate that body temperature stays relatively the same during a hunt. A 2013 study suggested stress hyperthermia and a slight increase in body temperature after a hunt. The cheetah's nervousness after a hunt may induce stress hyperthermia, which involves high sympathetic nervous activity and raises the body temperature. After a hunt, the risk of another predator taking their kill is great and the cheetah is on high alert and stressed. The increased sympathetic activity prepares the cheetah's body to run when another predator approaches. In the 2013 study, even the cheetah that did not chase the prey experienced an increase in body temperature once the prey was caught, showing increased sympathetic activity.
Cheetahs thrive in open lands, small plains, semi-desert areas, and other open habitats where prey is available. The Asiatic cheetah is found mainly in the desert areas around Dasht-e Kavir in the eastern half of Iran, including parts of the Kerman, Khorasan, Semnan, Yazd, Tehran, and Markazi provinces. Most live in five sanctuaries: Kavir National Park, Touran National Park, Bafq Protected Area, Daranjir Wildlife Reserve, and Naybandan Wildlife Reserve. Remaining cheetahs are divided into widely separated populations. Some possibly survive in the dry open Balochistan province of Pakistan but locals said they had not seen it for more than fifteen years.
During the 1970s, cheetahs in Iran were estimated to number about 200 individuals in seven protected areas. Figures for 2005–2006 suggested between 50 and 60 cheetahs in the wild. Continuous field surveys, along with 12,000 nights of camera trapping, were used to estimate the population size. Using 80 camera traps placed throughout the Dasht-e Kavir plateau, Iranian researchers obtained images of 76 individual cheetahs over the course of ten years from 2001. Camera traps from 2011 identified only 20 individuals in Iran but some areas were not covered. Hooman Jowkar, director of the Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah and Its Habitat Project, stated, "the focus is just on specific protected areas; and it is not possible to conduct camera-trapping during fall and winter when cheetah is physically most active." In November 2013, Morteza Eslami, the head of the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS), stated that 40 to 70 cheetahs remained.
Females, unlike males, do not establish a territory and instead travel within their habitats, sometimes migrating long distances.[30] Photos from camera traps showed that one female migrated 130 km, a journey which included crossing a railway and two major roads.
Asiatic cheetah with desert hare.
The Asiatic cheetah preys on small antelopes. In Iran, its diet consists mainly of Jebeer gazelle (also called Chinkara), Goitered gazelle, wildsheep, wild goat, and Cape hare. The main threat to the species is loss of their primary prey species due to poaching and grazing competition with domestic livestock. A study published in 2012 indicated that hares and rodents, while forming part of the cheetah's diet, are not a significant source of nutrition due to their small size and difficulty of being caught.
In India, prey was formerly abundant. Before its extinction in the country, the cheetah fed on the blackbuck, the chinkara, and sometimes the chital and the nilgai.
Evidence of mothers successfully raising cubs is very rare. In May 2013, images from a camera trap showed a mother with three cubs aged approximately one year in Miandasht Wildlife Refuge in north-east Iran. In October 2013, conservationists from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation filmed a mother with four cubs in Touran. In December 2014, four cheetahs were sighted and photographed by camera traps in the Touran National Park. Eleven cheetahs have also been sighted at the time and another four a month later. On 7 January 2015, Director General of Environmental Protection Department in North Khorasan, Iran announced a sighting of a female Asiatic cheetah and her cub at Miandasht Wildlife Refuge. Motahari also maintained that two days prior to this sighting, three other adult cheetahs were sighted by the locals some kilometers to the eastern border of Miandasht, and immediately reported to Jajrom Department of Environment. And in July 2015, eight new cheetahs (five adults and three cubs) have been spotted at Khar Touran.
Whilst it is estimated that 50 to 70 individuals are living in the wild, the numbers of Asiatic cheetah are stated to be on the rise. In December 2015, it is revealed that 18 new Asiatic cheetah cubs had recently been born and it is hoped for two captive Asian cheetahs at Pardisan Park would produce cubs.
Reduced gazelle numbers, persecution, land-use change, habitat degradation and fragmentation, and desertification contributed to the cheetah's decline. According to the Iranian Department of Environment this degradation occurred mainly between 1988 and 1991. The cheetah is affected by loss of prey as a result of overgrazing from introduced livestock and antelope hunting. Its prey was pushed out as herders entered game reserves with their herds.
Mining development and road construction near reserves also threaten the population. Coal, copper, and iron have been mined in the cheetah's habitat in three different regions in central and eastern Iran. It is estimated that the two regions for coal (Nayband) and iron (Bafq) have the largest cheetah population outside the protected areas. Mining itself is not a direct threat to cheetahs; road construction and the resulting traffic have made the cheetah accessible to humans, including poachers. The Iranian border regions to Afghanistan and Pakistan (Baluchistan province) are major passages for armed outlaws and opium smugglers who are active in the central and western regions of Iran, passing through cheetah habitat. According to Asada in 1997, the region suffers from uncontrolled hunting throughout the desert and the governments of the three countries cannot establish control. There is no reliable information regarding the present situation in this region.
Presently, there are between 40 to 70 Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. Morteza Eslami, head of the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS), told Trend News Agency in November 2013 that its survival remained unsecured. In 2012–13, two-thirds of cheetah deaths were the result of road accidents. Efforts to stop the construction of a road through the core of the Bafq Protected Area were unsuccessful. In February 2015, it was reported that road accidents were responsible for 40% of deaths.
The Asiatic cheetah is now listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, wildlife conservation was given a lower priority, but in recent years Iran has made efforts to conserve the remaining population. Iran's Department of the Environment, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have launched the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP) designed to preserve and rehabilitate the remaining areas of cheetah habitat left in Iran. Some surveys by Asadi in the latter half of 1997 showed that urgent action was The Asiatic cheetah is now listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, wildlife conservation was given a lower priority, but in recent years Iran has made efforts to conserve the remaining population. Iran's Department of the Environment, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have launched the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP) designed to preserve and rehabilitate the remaining areas of cheetah habitat left in Iran. Some surveys by Asadi in the latter half of 1997 showed that urgent action was required to rehabilitate wildlife populations, especially gazelles and their habitat, if the Asiatic cheetah is to survive.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Department of Environment, Iran (DoE) began a collaring project for Asiatic cheetahs in the fall of 2006. GPS collars provide data on the cat's movements. International sanctions have made some projects, such as obtaining camera traps, difficult.
In 2006, Iran designated 31 August as the Cheetah Conservation Day, during which the public is informed about conservation programs. In 2013, it was reported that the cheetah might appear on the Iranian national football team's jerseys at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. FIFA approved the design on 1 February 2014. In May 2015, the Department of the Environment announced plans to quintuple the penalty for poaching a cheetah to 100 million tomans (about $30,000).