Iran's Cheetahs in Desperate Need of Help as Extinction is On the Horizon

A seven-year-old male Asiatic cheetah.

The cheetah is one of several species of wild animals that epitomizes Africa in the people's mindset. This is true as seen in countless wildlife documentaries from past and present years. But what most people do not know is that there were and still are cheetahs in Asia. In centuries past, the Asiatic cheetah once ranged throughout the Arabian Peninsula and the Near East to Iran, covering Central Asia and the Caucasus, and extending all the way into India. Proof of these magnificent cats' existence is most notably seen in ancient Indian artwork from the Mughal era in which cheetahs are depicted hunting swift prey such as blackbucks and chinkaras for the emperors and maharajahs. They were also kept as companions for the royalty at the time. However, as time progressed into the 19th and 20th centuries, the attitude towards the cheetah in Asia changed dramatically from being seen as a hunter to the hunted. As a result, countless numbers of cheetahs were killed drastically throughout their former home range and ultimately confining them to the eastern half of Iran. Iran may be the last stronghold for the cheetah, but its numbers had been diminishing perilously since the 1970s due to man-made factors ranging from land-use change, habitat fragmentation and degradation, to persecution. As a result, fewer than 50 cheetahs are now left in Iran putting them on the brink of extinction. Scientists and conservationists are afraid that, without necessary intervention, there is little chance in saving these cats from extinction, especially after a decision made by the United Nations to remove funding from conservation efforts to protect them.

An ancient Indian painting depicting Mughal emperor Akbar hunting with cheetahs.

There had been several measurements in recent years to help increase awareness of the cheetah's plight in Iran. For example, in 2014, the country's national football team declared that their 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2015 AFC Asian Cup kits would be imprinted with pictures of the cheetah. Furthermore, a crowdfunding conservation project was established, and August 31 this year was declared "National Cheetah Day." Despite these efforts, the cheetah's decline has continued. According to Urs Breitenmoser of Bern's Cat Specialist Group, the cheetah has disappeared from Kavir in the western area, while individuals in the southern region are too sparsely spread for enough to interact and breed, and it is only around Touran and Miandasht in the north where there are enough individuals to control a population. Enforcing protection measurements of these last remnants of Iran's cheetah territory proved to be intensely difficult, due to cuts made by the country's government to its environment department's budget. Luckily, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supported Iran's cheetah conservation project by being able to get money into the country when other international agencies could not. But now, the agency announced that it could not continue supporting the project financially after December because it had to make significant cuts in its budgets. Therefore, Iran should now handle the project alone.

Despite the presence of signs warning drivers, many cheetahs like this one are killed by vehicles in Iran.

I do not know how to put it into words, but it is perfectly clear that the Asiatic cheetah is on a knife edge and will become extinct in a span of couple of years, unless drastic action is taken. This magnificent cat was virtually wiped out by anthropogenic factors in countries that were part of its historic range in Asia. Iran managed to save it from becoming extinct - until now. It is now the high time to take serious action to save the cheetah from extinction in Iran. The country had lost the Caspian tiger and Asiatic lion in the past; this cannot happen to the cheetah. With fewer than 50 animals left, it is in a desperate need of help and without substantial financial support from international agencies to Iran's cheetah conservation project, the cheetah will become extinct like the tiger and the lion. I urge the government of Iran to not give up on its cheetah conservation. I also urge the people of Iran to wake up and act upon this conservation issue that has remained unchanged since the 1970s. It is extremely crucial to reach out, educate, and encourage Iran's pastoral communities to refrain from hunting cheetahs and killing them in a retaliatory manner in order to protect their livestock. Instead, they should be provided with livestock guardian dogs like Anatolian Shepherds which were given to farmers in Namibia by the Cheetah Conservation Fund in an effort to prevent retaliatory killings of cheetahs. Furthermore, it is necessary to construct underpass tunnels that run underneath roads to prevent cheetahs from being killed by vehicles and also put an end to mining operations taking place in cheetah territories. The Asiatic cheetah's life hangs in balance and it is never too late to save it. But the world needs to act fast.

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Wolves in the U.S Should Deserve a Second Chance

Northwestern wolf

Two conservation groups have recently put up a reward of $20,000 to help condemn poachers responsible for killing two breeding female wolves in eastern Washington. One of the females' carcass was found on December 5 by the staff of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) fifteen miles southwest of the city of Republic in Ferry County. The female wolf's radio collar had stopped functioning in early November, which triggered the search for her body. She was a member of a wolfpack known as the Profanity Pack, who was fitted with a radio collar in 2016 to help the department personnel to track the pack as seven of its eleven members were shot to protect the ranchers' cattle. According to Police Captain Dan Rahn of the WDFW, the female was able to survive the shooting and most of 2017 while traveling on her own until she was killed by a poacher. The second breeding female was found dead by hunters on November 12 roughly ten miles southeast of Colville in Stevens County. She was found within the range of the Dirty Shirt pack and was assumed to be its member. The conservation groups that put up the $20,000 reward were Conservation Northwest and Cascadia Wildlands; each contributed $10,000 toward the reward.

With 45-60 animals left by 2016, the red wolf is on the brink of extinction in its native North Carolina homeland. A push for an end to the state's wolf recovery program by Republican senators has further put the species into jeopardy.

I find it very disturbing and saddening that these two female wolves lost their lives in the murderous hands of poachers. Both of these animals were breeding females, which conservationists had high hopes for regarding the restoration of wolves in the northwestern U.S. But now, those hopes have been shattered hindering the researchers' works and putting the region's wolf population in jeopardy. It goes to show that wolves in the U.S are not getting a second chance to recolonize areas where they had long disappeared, due to human persecution. What is more shocking is that wolves in Washington coexist alongside domestic livestock without incident, yet people resort to lethal methods to eliminate them just to protect their animals. Furthermore, the federal government is also involved in this issue about the relationship between wolves and making decisions that are disheartening to conservation groups committed to protect the animals and ensuring their survival and well-being. In November this year, Republican senators pushed for an end to North Carolina's red wolf recovery program putting the animal's life in jeopardy. It is extremely appalling that the federal government makes such a decision that would spell doom to a species that is on the brink of extinction because of human persecution and pressure. In addition, the relationship between people, especially ranchers, and conservation groups concerning wolves is very strained. Nick Cady of Cascadia Wildlands stated that whenever the group takes legal action, it gets threats. The public needs to understand that these groups are not only trying to save wolves, but also helping farmers and ranchers to peacefully coexist with them. However, there are also people who simply do not care about wolves and would rather see them go extinct. These people could be in Washington, North Carolina, Arizona, or anywhere in the country where wolves are present and they show their colors by sending threats to conservation groups in an attempt to stop them from doing what is right for both wolves and the public. These are the kind of people that should be substantially dealt with. Both gray wolves and red wolves are part of the United States' natural heritage and should deserve a second chance.

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Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project- Madhya Pradesh Backs Down

An Asiatic lion pair in Gir Forest National Park

The state of Madhya Pradesh has recently appeared to have given up on the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project from Gujarat's Gir Forest National Park to Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary. The state government, after almost twenty years of unsuccessful struggle with Gujarat over transfer of Gir Forest's lions, has unofficially abandoned hope on the project. An order by the Supreme Court authorizing the translocation of lions to Madhya Pradesh could not influence the government of Gujarat from providing the big cats. The government of Madhya Pradesh has instead decided to release and rehabilitate tigers in Kuno-Palpur sanctuary which they claim is ready. The decision came from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan during a State Wildlife Board meeting, suggesting at a probable failure in getting lions from Gujarat. Sources indicated that the decision to bring tigers in Kuno-Palpur sanctuary clearly shows that the government of Madhya Pradesh has lost hope on bringing lions from Gujarat. Although the government had announced and evacuated a 345-sq. km area for the sanctuary in 1981 and created an extra 900 sq. km of buffer zone in 2015, it did not acknowledge declaring the buffer zone area as a sanctuary which is being argued by the government of Gujarat. Sources further added that wildlife experts and officials from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in a turnaround position also predicted that without notifying the areas as a sanctuary, it would be harmful to the lions' breeding and survival.

View of Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary

It looks this ongoing debate between the governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh about the reintroduction of the Asiatic lion has come to a halt. For nearly twenty years, the two governments had been constantly arguing of translocating lions from Gir Forest to the forests of Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Much of the arguments given by each side were largely political with the Madhya Pradesh government arguing that Gujarat's lion population has increased to such an extent that the animals should be transferred to Madhya Pradesh so that the state could start its own lion population. The government of Gujarat, on the other hand, was reluctant to do such a thing arguing that the lions are the "state's heritage" and that the poachers targeting them in Gir Forest come from Madhya Pradesh. Eventually, the Madhya Pradesh government gave up hope and has now decided to release tigers into Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary.

The government of Madhya Pradesh is now focusing on releasing tigers into Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary

I find this news very interesting because it marks the end of the 20-year debate between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh over the translocation of lions outside Gujarat. However, it also implies that the efforts Gujarat government put in challenging the Supreme Court's order in 2013 about lion translocation in Madhya Pradesh have paid off. Two years ago, the government of Gujarat presented an argument to the Supreme Court based on studies and guidelines of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a petition filed by the Wildlife Conservation Trust, Rajkot, and a report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). The argument stressed that reintroducing lions in Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary may prove to be harmful for lions, the wildlife sanctuary is an important corridor for tiger movement between Ranthambore National Park and Sehore district, and that the lions are not in any threat of extinction for the next hundred years. Before presenting such an argument, Gujarat government was mainly stressing about the lion being the state's heritage. This showed that the collaboration between conservation groups and governments can make a difference in issues related to wildlife and conservation. The government of Madhya Pradesh now wants to release tigers into Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary, but it has not notified that the sanctuary's buffer zone is a protected area which the Gujarat government has argued. It is highly essential that the Madhya Pradesh government announce the sanctuary's buffer zone as a protected area before releasing tigers into Kuno-Palpur. At the same time, the government should collaborate with conservation groups to ensure the animals' safety and well-being.

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Can Instagram Warn People About Wildlife Exploitation?

Instagram's message to all its users about abuse towards endangered wild animals

Social media platform, Instagram, has recently joined the battle against cruelty related to wildlife. This can be seen that when an Instagram user either looks for or clicks on a hashtag that is usually linked to abusive behavior towards endangered species such as posing with or holding wild animals, the following warning message would show up: "You are searching for a hashtag that may be associated with posts that encourage harmful behavior to animals or the environment." When the user clicks through to "Learn more," he or she is guided to a page on wildlife exploitation with information warning tourists against taking photos with endangered exotic animals. Instagram has worked with several wildlife organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), TRAFFIC, and World Animal Protection, to find the most commonly used hashtags identified with abusive behavior towards animals, including animal tourism and the illegal wildlife trade. An Instagram representative indicated that hundreds of hashtag combinations will now produce the warning. These combinations range from phrases that turn to be used on photos of tourists with captive animals such as #lionselfie, to more outrageous ones linked to illegal wildlife trafficking like #exoticanimalforsale. A simple cursory search of such hashtags can result in thousands of photos showing people touching the animals or posing next to them being held in captivity.

Instagram logo

Although most people know that trafficking endangered species and selling their body parts is illegal and harmful to them, everyone does not consider photos of someone either holding a monkey or riding an elephant as threatening an animal's well-being - but they often can be. Some signs of whether an animal may be being mistreated include an animal being held, constrained or kept caged for tourists. Initially, Instagram had a policy that did not permit images showing animal abuse or sale of endangered animals. But now, the staff in support of the app's monitoring and reporting system have received further education from wildlife experts on what kinds of activities are abusive or illegal when it comes to animals. Instagram's latest program warning users about wildlife exploitation works much like those installed by the platform last year related to issues of self-harm, which triggered a pop-up message to users looking for hashtags related to eating disorders, suicide, and other topics. However, Instagram's warning system does have its drawbacks. For example, the message which pops up after clicking on a given hashtag related to wildlife photos would not show up to warn a user if he/she is the one posting a photo with the hashtag. In addition, anyone who sees the warning can easily click "show posts" and go about their search for such photos. According one Instagram representative, the goal of this program aims to educate people who might not know that their actions can support activities in the tourism industry that are harmful to animals.

Due to the popularity of elephants in Asia's tourism industry, tourists have their pictures taken riding on them often not understanding the animals' well-being.

I find it very impressive and beneficial that Instagram has joined forces with wildlife organizations to warn and educate users about the cruelty behind photos they take of themselves with endangered wild animals. By setting up such a program that warns users about hashtags associated with posts encouraging wild animal abuse and information related to wildlife exploitation, Instagram is reaching out to the global community and raising awareness about the illegal wildlife trade. However, the program's limits include not showing the warning message to users who themselves post photos with hashtags related to wildlife exploitation and that anyone who sees the warning can simply ignore it and proceed to look at such photos by clicking "show posts." I think out of these two drawbacks, the biggest problem is that people choose to ignore the message and spend their time enjoying looking at photos of other people holding endangered wild animals, touching them, taking selfies with them, or doing anything that encourages harmful behavior to the animals. How will people learn about the harmful effects of wildlife exploitation on endangered species, especially if they have never made physical contact with such animals and took pictures of themselves with animals? This is why I believe people should take Instagram's warning very seriously and learn to respect endangered species by giving them their space, never purchasing products made out of their body parts, and understanding the harmful effects of poaching combined with the illegal smuggling of wildlife. At first, these photos of tourists posing with endangered species may appear fun and humorous to look at but when you scratch the surface, it is not what it appears to be. Many of these animals are captured from their natural habitat, kept in cramped conditions, and constantly passed around from one tourist to another for picture-taking which causes extreme trauma. Therefore, people should reconsider their decisions of having their pictures taken with endangered animals when traveling to exotic places and never be fooled by the photos taken of themselves with such animals. If you care so much about the animals and their well-being, then don't do it. Simple as that.

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