TEHRAN – The Department of Environment (DOE) is preparing a plan on capturing two remaining Asiatic cheetahs alive for conservation and reproduction purposes, Majid Kharrazian-Moqaddam, director of the wildlife conservation and management at the DOE has said.

Through the plan, an Asiatic cheetah couple inhabiting in protected areas of central province of Yazd will be caught, he said, adding, related organizations must cooperate in this regard.
To implement the plan, an amount of budget is required, which must be allocated to prevent the valuable species from extinction, he further highlighted, YJC reported on Monday.

He went on to note that Iran is the only country in Asia and the world that can reproduce and revive endangered species due to the existence of few remaining Asiatic cheetahs in the country.

If the required budget is provided, we can be somewhat hopeful to revive the precious species, he concluded.

The world's fastest mammal, capable of reaching speeds of 120 kilometers per hour, once stalked habitats from the eastern reaches of India to the Atlantic coast of Senegal, once their numbers have stabilized in parts of southern Africa, but they have practically disappeared from northern Africa and Asia.

The subspecies "Acinonyx jubatus venaticus", commonly known as the Asiatic cheetah, is critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with fewer than 50 believed to remain in Iran.

Roads fragmenting cheetahs’ habitats are the main threats for the species, while guard dogs and stray dogs, drought spells, decreasing population of the prey species to support the cheetahs, and habitat loss are also other factors endangering the sparse population of the cheetahs in the country.

FB/MG