This represented a significant leap: In August last year, the\u00a0Tehran Times<\/em>\u00a0reported\u00a0that just 20 were left in the wild.<\/p>\n Nine days after the sighting of the five cubs, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran, prompting a swift retaliation that has since escalated into a regional conflict with global repercussions \u2014 and poses a new threat to a big cat that hovers on the brink of extinction.<\/p>\n The Asiatic cheetah was once found throughout Central and Southwest Asia, with a range that spanned from the Arabian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea and as far east as India. However, this cat was extirpated from most of its range during the 20th century through a deadly combination of hunting, habitat loss and prey depletion. It is now relegated to just 16% of its former territory, confined within Iran. There\u00a0hasn\u2019t been physical evidence\u00a0of the cat\u2019s presence elsewhere since 1982.<\/p>\n This cheetah was designated as a protected species in Iran in 1959 and was the focus of conservation efforts through the 1960s and \u201970s. But the tumult that followed the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and later the Iran-Iraq war, have been referred to as \u201clost years\u201d for the species\u2019 conservation.<\/p>\n By the 1990s, the Asiatic cheetah had almost completely\u00a0disappeared, their numbers thinned by vehicle collisions, poaching, human-wildlife conflict, prey depletion and habitat loss. The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, designated the subspecies\u00a0critically endangered\u00a0in 2008.<\/p>\n Efforts to save the cheetahs have been fraught with difficulty, due in part to geopolitical tensions, particularly over the last decade. The\u00a0Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation case, in which nine cheetah conservationists were accused of espionage and imprisoned in 2018, brought international scientific collaboration to a grinding halt.<\/p>\n Western sanctions on Iran have also taken a toll. \u201cCritical activities such as monitoring, law enforcement and the development of wildlife-friendly infrastructure have declined,\u201d the authors of a 2025 study in the journal\u00a0People and Nature<\/em>\u00a0wrote. \u201cThese limitations have contributed to a decrease in prey availability and an increase in direct cheetah mortality, particularly from road accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n In June 2025, the 12-day war with Israel and the U.S. led the Iranian government to impose tighter restrictions on key cheetah conservation activities, including fieldwork and data collection. But there had been cautious optimism about resumed collaboration with international partners, which would contribute invaluable resources and expertise. In August last year, an official\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0state media that cheetah conservation was \u201camong the top priorities\u201d of the Department of Environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [possible] extinction of the world\u2019s rarest cat has become a symbol of our challenges and responsibilities towards Iran\u2019s nature,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0department head Shina Ansari.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s remaining cheetahs are scattered across fragmented, rugged habitats, including the vast, arid Dasht-e Kavir (Kavir Desert) which spans central Iran\u2019s Yazd, Semnan, Kerman and Isfahan provinces. It encompasses designated protected areas, wildlife refuges and national parks. Military sites in some of these provinces have been the target of U.S. and Israeli strikes.<\/p>\n This has raised fears among conservationists who worry that their vehicles could be misidentified or even targeted, \u201cparticularly in remote desert landscapes where cheetahs live,\u201d a local conservationist told Mongabay, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.<\/p>\n Sarah Durant, a cheetah expert and research scientist at the\u00a0Zoological Society of London, emphasized the critical role that field scientists, park rangers and Indigenous peoples play in safeguarding biodiversity. It makes their protection during armed conflict \u201ca matter of urgent international concern,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Their work places them in considerable danger, she said, but \u201cunlike humanitarian workers, there is currently no international formal recognition of the status of conservation actors.\u201d She added that \u201csuch recognition could help shield [them] from attack to enable them to continue their vital \u2014 and globally important \u2014 work of biodiversity protection.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the outbreak of war, access to protected areas and key cheetah habitats for nongovernmental conservationists has been severely restricted and efforts have \u201cslowed down considerably,\u201d with interruptions to long-term monitoring, camera trapping and field surveys, according to Mongabay\u2019s anonymous source.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the Asiatic cheetah, this situation is particularly critical,\u201d they said. \u201cWith such a small remaining population, any disruption in protection and monitoring can have serious consequences. Reduced presence [of conservationists] on the ground and lower prioritization increases the risks of poaching, road mortality and habitat disturbance.\u201d<\/p>\n Most environmental NGOs in Iran have paused their work. Communication is difficult or impossible, with the country in the grip of an ongoing\u00a0internet shutdown.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current situation has intensified existing challenges,\u201d the anonymous source said. \u201cConservation in Iran has already been under significant pressure due to security concerns, limited funding, and weak institutional support. Now, these constraints are even more severe.\u201d<\/p>\n Remote habitats are experiencing what bird conservationist and environmental educator Iman Ebrahimi, who\u2019s based in Isfahan, called \u201cunique consequences of war.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn those areas,\u201d he said, \u201cyou sometimes see an unusual situation. Neither rangers nor poachers are active. In the short term, this can benefit wildlife and increase security, but it raises serious concerns about long-term sustainability once conditions change.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that online monitoring systems have been disrupted, leading to a greater dependence on physical patrolling, which now comes with new risks. Community-based conservation is also affected, as local communities face economic and security concerns.<\/p>\n Crises \u201ctend to reduce participation in governance,\u201d the unnamed conservationist said. \u201cNongovernmental involvement declines sharply, and conservation becomes more centralized and state-controlled. In Iran, this shift is particularly concerning, as effective conservation has always depended on collaboration and trust between different actors,\u201d they said. \u201cThe shrinking space for nongovernmental engagement is one of the most serious risks to conservation outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n So far, the impact of war on conservation writ large, Ebrahimi said, is \u201cquite uneven. It is not simply negative or positive, but very context dependent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is really interesting is that areas where conservation has been more socially embedded, where protection is supported by local people and relationships rather than only formal enforcement, seem to be holding up better under these conditions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Unlike their plains-dwelling African counterparts, the Asiatic \u00a0cheetahs prefer to live in hilly terrain, and they\u2019re notoriously difficult to monitor, with large ranges and low population density. Therefore, conservationists rely heavily on motion-triggered camera traps to track and identify individual cats. Import restrictions have\u00a0limited or prevented\u00a0the acquisition of high-quality conservation tech, and the use of satellite or SIM-enabled devices is\u00a0currently not permitted.<\/p>\n The use of camera traps sparked controversy in 2018, when conservationists from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation were arrested and\u00a0accused\u00a0of espionage. However, the use of camera traps for cheetah monitoring has since resumed.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, GPS collars that track animal movements are among the most important gear in the conservation toolbox for wide-ranging or elusive species. Biologists fitted cheetahs with GPS collars in 2007, and also used them to\u00a0study\u00a0Persian leopards (Panthera pardus saxicolor<\/em>) in 2014.<\/p>\n Research\u00a0released last year noted that while camera traps offer valuable data about the presence of cheetahs, they \u201cfall short in revealing fine-scale movement patterns.\u201d The authors recommended using GPS collars.<\/p>\n \u201cSatellite telemetry is crucial to fill this gap, especially with fewer than 30 individuals remaining,\u201d the report said. \u201cGPS collars can provide essential insights into habitat use, movements and survival, enabling more effective conservation strategies.<\/p>\n Despite the imminent risk of extinction, cheetah conservationists mark \u201crare moments of encouragement.\u201d The female cheetah filmed in Miandasht Wildlife Refuge in February is well-known to conservationists, who call her Helia.<\/p>\n She was sighted back in August 2022 in Turan Biosphere Reserve with four cubs, but the following month, a camera trap showed her with just two.<\/p>\n In 2024, Helia was seen again with another two cubs in Miandasht Wildlife Refuge. It was the first confirmed sighting of a cheetah in the area in six years, and she\u2019d traveled more than 130 kilometers (80 miles) to get there from the Turan reserve.<\/p>\n However, one of the two cubs was hit by a vehicle on the so-called \u201cDeath Road,\u201d the Meyami\u2013Sabzevar route that cuts through Semnan province in the northern part of the country. For seven nights after the death of her cub, Helia stayed near the road, and volunteers stood by to block traffic in case she and her remaining baby attempted to cross again.<\/p>\n Prior to that incident, officials had been\u00a0celebrating\u00a0zero cheetah road deaths for the year. More than half of all recorded cheetah deaths in Iran are caused by road accidents.<\/p>\n With so few Asiatic cheetahs remaining, each death delivers a blow to the subspecies\u2019 prospects for survival. This was highlighted by one particularly devastating case in 2023, when a female cheetah was hit and killed on a road outside the city of Meyami in Semnan province, east of Tehran. An autopsy revealed she was pregnant with three cubs.<\/p>\n Efforts to reduce wildlife mortality have included putting up fences, installing cameras, enforcing speed limits, and creating culverts that run under the roads; studies show that cheetahs use these underpasses.<\/p>\n The few wild cheetahs left in Iran are \u201cID-carded\u201d with a three-digit number that documents the sex and provides samples of spot patterns from the shoulder, flank and rump. As with a human fingerprint, each cheetah\u2019s spots are unique to the individual.<\/p>\n Besides preventing deaths from vehicles, human-wildlife conflict and poaching, there\u2019s been significant debate over how best to secure the subspecies\u2019 future.<\/p>\n Asiatic cheetahs are beset by\u00a0low genetic diversity\u00a0and inbreeding, which threatens immunity and long-term survival for any species. Iran\u2019s experiments with captive breeding have met with no real success. Meanwhile, fewer than half of cubs survive beyond their first year, according to a decade of monitoring data included in a\u00a0study\u00a0released last year. Some experts advocate for the introduction of African cheetahs to expand the gene pool.<\/p>\n Conservationists say in-situ solutions are what\u2019s required, and preferably, a holistic approach rather than a single-species focus.<\/p>\n \u201cPrey species such as gazelles and wild ungulates are also under increased pressure,\u201d the unnamed conservationist said. \u201cHunting may rise due to economic hardship, and reduced enforcement in protected areas makes the situation worse. This directly impacts the cheetah, as prey availability is essential for its survival.\u201d<\/p>\n There are other serious concerns. Iran\u2019s arid center faces severe threat from climate change and the region has suffered through several consecutive years of drought \u2014 something that has a devastating impact on ecosystems and the species that depend on them.<\/p>\n The anonymous conservationist said it\u2019s important to understand that conservation in Iran is \u201cnot limited by lack of knowledge or commitment. The main constraints are structural and contextual.\u201d Despite the many risks and challenges, they said, \u201cmany conservationists continue their work under extremely difficult conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n Conservation efforts may not resume when the bombs stop falling. \u201cPost-conflict recovery efforts very rarely consider the environment, much less wildlife \u2026 especially when there is a humanitarian crisis going on,\u201d Peter Zahler, director of field conservation for Zoo New England, told Mongabay by email. \u201cIt is absolutely critical that conservation efforts try to continue despite \u2014 and because of \u2014 conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n The damage inflicted so far in this war will likely mean a reduction in resources dedicated to conservation, said\u00a0Jamshid Parchizadeh. He\u2019s a research scientist at Michigan State University who has worked as a wildlife biologist in Iran on projects involving leopards, cheetahs, bears, wolves, hyenas and deer.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen this war is over \u2014 if it is ever over \u2014 the government of Iran [will have] to spend all the money it has on rebuilding the country, including infrastructure that has been damaged or obliterated during the war,\u201d\u00a0Parchizadeh said. \u201cPeople\u2019s homes have been damaged or destroyed, and it is obvious that they will need somewhere to live. Who should help these homeless people? This requires a lot of money. These will become the priorities for the government.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the war, cheetah conservation received limited funding from the government,\u201d Parchizadeh said. \u201cBut after the war, I doubt that the government has any money left for the conservation of the cheetah.\u201d<\/p>\n Taktehrani, A., Shah Hosseini, M., Gholikhani, N., Hobeali, K., Karimi, M. H., Samadzadeh, N., \u2026 Farhadinia, M. S. (2025).\u00a0Will they survive? Alarming circumstances of Asiatic cheetah<\/em>\u00a0(Acinonyx jubatus venaticus)\u00a0in Iran\u2019s drylands<\/em>. bioRxiv. doi:10.1101\/2025.10.27.684750<\/a><\/p>\n Farhadinia, M. S., Hunter, L. T., Jourabchian, A., Hosseini-Zavarei, F., Akbari, H., Ziaie, H., \u2026 Jowkar, H. (2017). The critically endangered asiatic cheetah\u00a0Acinonyx jubatus venaticus<\/em>\u00a0in Iran: A review of recent distribution, and conservation status.\u00a0Biodiversity and Conservation<\/em>,\u00a026<\/em>(5), 1027-1046. doi:10.1007\/s10531-017-1298-8<\/a><\/p>\n Murali, R., Adabaeva, A., Angulo, S., Arispe, R., Baumann, M., Ghoddousi, A., \u2026 K\u00fcmmerle, T. (2025). Understanding multiple pathways of the impacts of socio\u2010economic shocks on large carnivores.\u00a0People and Nature<\/em>,\u00a07<\/em>(11), 3104-3125. doi:10.1002\/pan3.70162<\/a><\/p>\n Safiyan-Boldaji, P., Poirazidis, K., Hemami, M., Moser, D., Plutzar, C., Dullinger, S., & Schindler, S. (2024). Safeguarding the last stronghold: Ecology and conservation of Asiatic Cheetah\u2019s prey species in Turan Biosphere Reserve (Iran).\u00a0Global Ecology and Conservation<\/em>,\u00a051<\/em>, e02937. doi:10.1016\/j.gecco.2024.e02937<\/a><\/p>\n Molania, H., Fadakar, D., Akbari, H., & Rezaei, H. R. (2026). Desert-edge contact zone between goitered gazelle subspecies in northeastern Iran.\u00a0Journal of Arid Environments<\/em>,\u00a0233<\/em>, 105531. doi:10.1016\/j.jaridenv.2025.105531<\/a><\/p>\n Ashrafzadeh, M. R., Khosravi, R., Adibi, M. A., Taktehrani, A., Wan, H. Y., & Cushman, S. A. (2020). A multi-scale, multi-species approach for assessing effectiveness of habitat and connectivity conservation for endangered felids.\u00a0Biological Conservation<\/em>,\u00a0245<\/em>, 108523. doi:10.1016\/j.biocon.2020.108523<\/a><\/p>\n Khalatbari, L., Godinho, R., Abolghasemi, H., Hakimi, E., Ghadirian, T., Jowkar, H., \u2026 Brito, J. C. (2023). The persistence of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah relies upon urgent connectivity protection: A landscape genetics perspective.\u00a0Conservation Genetics<\/em>,\u00a024<\/em>(4), 461-472. doi:10.1007\/s10592-023-01513-6<\/a><\/p>\nA species on the brink<\/h2>\n
New war, new threats<\/h2>\n
Conservation tech<\/h2>\n
Roads to extinction<\/h2>\n
Future in the balance<\/h2>\n
Citations:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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