Iran - Andrew Burke [62]
With the support of the UN and the World Conservation Society, the government has designated land, mainly in Yazd and Semnan provinces, as parks and reserves, and has increased punishments for poaching. Tracking studies have been ongoing since 2001 and since early 2007 cheetahs and Persian leopards have been fitted with GPS collars. The Asiatic cheetah requires vast tracts of land to survive so the plan is to identify exactly where the cheetah roam and try to link the existing reserves to form a safe haven for the few remaining populations.
Unfortunately, severe habitat loss during the 1980s and the resultant loss of cheetah prey, traditionally jebeer and goitered gazelles, as well as wild sheep and goats, have forced the cats deeper into mountainous areas in search of more modest meals – such as hare and even lizards. In late 2007 one of the first two cheetahs fitted with a GPS collar was found dead in a mountain valley, killed by a Persian leopard as they hunted the same meal.
On the positive side, education programs have significantly reduced poaching and the creation of protected areas is expected to help other native species to recover. For more information visit www.wcs.org and go to the Iran Cheetah Project, or see www.iraniancheetah.org.
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Notable other species of mammal include the spectacular Persian wild ass, goitered and Jebeer gazelles, maral, Asian black bear and brown bear. Wild dogs include wolves, jackals and hyenas, while Iran’s unusually large wild boars are often targeted by hunters. The majority of these larger mammals are primarily found in the forests of the Alborz Mountains although large cats, wild dogs and gazelle are also found in the arid lands around the two major deserts.
Camels still roam the deserts of the eastern provinces of Kerman, Sistan va Baluchestan and Khorasan, and while they might look wild they almost certainly belong to nomadic or seminomadic communities.
Birds
About 500 species of bird have been sighted in Iran, but only one – Pleske’s ground jay – is unique to the country. However, a small but growing number of birders are coming to Iran in search of montane or arid-land Middle East species that are hard or dangerous to find elsewhere. These include the Caucasian black grouse, Caspian snowcock, Radde’s accentor and several species of wheatear.
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Birds of the Middle East, by RF Porter, S Christensen and P Schiermacker-Hansen is the best book to buy if you’re serious about birding in Iran.
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Iran is home to 22 wetlands that are protected under the Ramsar Convention. These are ideal places to see migrating land and water birds in their natural habitat, while en route between Europe and Africa. The range of water birds, ducks in particular, is impressive. While the numbers are far fewer than reported a few decades ago, there are still thought to be more than one million resident (for at least part of the year) in Iran. Migratory water birds include the greater flamingo, once found in their thousands on Lake Orumiyeh in spring but less common now due to rising salination, as well as the glossy ibis and the Smyrna kingfisher.
Other relatively common species include black-and-white magpies, blue rollers, brown-and-green bee-eaters, and black-and-grey hooded crows. Less common are the golden eagle, found in the Caspian provinces; the tiny jiroft, found in Kerman province and along the Persian Gulf; the red-wattled lapwing; the yellow partridge; the delijeh and balaban falcon, found mainly in Hamadan province; and the black vulture and black kite, which live in the central plateau and deserts.
Marine Life
The Persian Gulf is home to a wide range of tropical fish, as well as swordfish, porpoises and sharks. The Caspian Sea has the Caspian seal, whose origin remains a mystery to science as it exists so far from the open