Feline Family Portrait

In front of the camera, these cats were not shy—they pushed their wide black noses and whiskery cheeks right up to the lens. In life, however, their appearances in this isolated region of Iran are extraordinarily rare.

Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) do not think of themselves as family portraitists, but the photos of a group of rare Iranian cheetahs they recently captured on their camera trap were worthy of a frame. Working in conjunction with Iran’s Department of Environment (DOE) in the  Dar-e Anjir Wildlife Refuge, the scientists had set up their cameras to survey the region’s wildlife. The pictures they captured of an adult female cheetah and her four youngsters resting in the shade of a tree mark the largest-known group of these cats that scientists have ever photographed.

Once ranging from the Red Sea to India, the Asiatic cheetah today hangs on by only the thinnest of threads. Its fate has been driven by widespread poaching of the cats themselves as well as their prey, along with degradation of habitat due to livestock grazing. Today, fewer than 60 exist on the entire Asian continent, most of which live on Iran’s arid central plateau.

Initiated by a major grant and ongoing support from the United Nations Development Program’s Global Environment Facility, WCS began its collaboration with Iranian scientists in 2001 by surveying five protected areas where cheetahs were still thought to exist. The group found a variety of suitable habitats, but also discovered that the cats’ prey species, such as jebeer gazelle and urial sheep, were scarce. The latest photographs hint at the gradual recovery of prey populations.

“As a species the cheetah is still in dire straits in Iran, so it is extremely encouraging to see an apparently healthy family in their native habitat,” said Dr. Peter Zahler, assistant director for WCS’s Asia Programs. “Images like these give hope to conservationists that there is still time to save these magnificent animals.”

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