Journal article
The critically endangered Asiatic cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus in Iran: a review of recent distribution, and conservation status
- Abstract:
- Considerable effort has been put into conservation of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus in Iran during the past few decades, and a thorough review of the species’ status, demography, range and conservation is provided here. We collated a large dataset of all verified occurrence data, photographic records and mortality cases since 1980 throughout the species’ range in Iran. Currently, the cheetah is distributed throughout the arid landscapes of the eastern half of Iran, but the limits of its current and past range as well as population trends are uncertain. Surveys of nearly 40 different areas resulted in 18 localities with confirmed presence of cheetahs in recent years. Camera trapping has been an effective tool to provide evidence of presence and status of cheetahs, revealing the species’ extremely low density and long inter-reserve movements. Together with photographic records, a total of 82 different cheetahs were detected during the 2000s in Iran. Protection status in most areas has been elevated by the Iran government. Asiatic cheetahs are highly vulnerable to extinction, mainly due to causalities mediated by herder persecution, poaching and road collisions as well as prey and habitat loss. Some efforts have been made to address these threats, but range expansion in recent years is a result of greater survey effort, rather than population recovery. We suggest that, despite conservation investment of the last 15 years, the species remains critically endangered on the verge of extinction.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 839.1KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1007/s10531-017-1298-8
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Journal:
- Biodiversity and Conservation More from this journal
- Volume:
- 26
- Issue:
- 5
- Pages:
- 1027-1046
- Publication date:
- 2017-02-01
- Acceptance date:
- 2017-01-20
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1572-9710
- ISSN:
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0960-3115
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:681338
- UUID:
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uuid:d35cf2f7-b6f4-454a-9122-73a318b35e17
- Local pid:
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pubs:681338
- Source identifiers:
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681338
- Deposit date:
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2017-10-04
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Farhadinia et al
- Copyright date:
- 2017
- Notes:
- © The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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