• English Site
• > World

Rivals to the Rescue

US and Iran Overlook Differences to Save Cheetahs

They may be at each other's throats on the international stage, but when it comes to saving the Asiatic cheetah, the US and Iran see eye to eye. As long as no American scientists enter Iran, that is.

The Asiatic cheetah, one of the most imperiled big cats in the world, is getting a pair of helping hands from the political odd couple of the US and Iran. The only catch is that US scientists won't be allowed into Iran to help the cheetahs out.

A team of researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), based in New York, will be joining colleagues in Iran this November to continue a project that aims to help preserve the highly endangered Asiatic Cheetah.

The animals, which were trained by Iranian kings in ancient times to hunt gazelle and whose habitat used to extend from Saudi Arabia to India, now only live on the edges of Iran's Kavir Desert and are thought to number between 60 and 100.

Five scientists, all non-Americans affiliated with the WCS, will meet with Iranians from the Iranian Department of Environment team and experts from its Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah Project. The project, launched in 2001, seeks to locate the cheetahs, capture them and then release them after fitting them with a Global Positioning System (GPS) collar. The information from the tracking devices will enable scientists to know where the cheetahs are living and allow conservationiststo secure land critical to their survival.

"We know very little about the important ecological needs of the species in Iran except that they require vast areas for their survival," WCS zoologist Luke Hunter said in a statement. "Understanding their movements as they travel between reserves is one of the first steps in establishing a plan to secure and connect the few remaining populations of this incredible animal."

The WCS estimates that the Asiatic cheetah population ranged from 100 to 400 animals before that country's 1979 revolution. Since then, widespread poaching of the cheetahs and their prey and degradation of their natural habitats have significantly depleted their numbers.

The scientist undertook a similar expedition into the rugged mountain ranges of Iran's central highlands last February and successfully captured and outfitted two cheetahs with the electronic tracking devices. Their goal is to do the same for seven cheetahs this November.

"The cheetahs are incredibly shy," Hunter told the US broadcaster National Public Radio in March when the first two animals were collared. "They're nothing like the (African) cheetahs you see on any television programs." To catch them, the scientists use a spring-loaded, soft-catch foot snare buried in the ground that causes no injury to the animal.

As the US and Iran are rattling sabers regarding Iran's alleged involvement in the war in Iraq, its nuclear energy program and its president's questioning of the Holocaust, it seems strange that the two countries have been able to cooperate on this zoological matter. According to Hunter, though -- an Australian -- no US nationals are allowed on the conservationist trips in Iran.

jtw