Miandasht Wildlife Refuge is a reserve in northeastern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It comprises 844 square kilometres of semi desert and shrub land and is home to the endangered Asiatic cheetah.

History and location

Miandasht Wildlife Refuge is situated in

North Khorasan Province North Khorasan Province ( fa, استان خراسان شمالی, ''Ostān-e Khorāsān-e Shomālī'') is a province located in northeastern Iran. Bojnord is the capital of the province. The counties of North Khorasan Province are Shirvan Cou ...

in northeastern Iran. It has been designated as a Wildlife Reserve by the Iranian Department of the Environment in 1973.Mohammad S. Farhadinia, Bahman Shams Esfandabad, Mahmoud Karami, Fatemeh Hosseini-Zavarei, Hossein Absalan and Bagher Nezami: ''Goitered Gazelle'' Gazella subgutturosa ''Guldenstaedt, 1780: its habitat preference and conservation needs in Miandasht Wildlife Refuge, northeastern Iran''. Zoology in the Middle East 46, 2009
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/ref> The reserve is located to the south of

Golestan National Park Golestan National Park ( fa, پارک ملی گلستان), commonly known as the Golestan Jungle (), is an Iranian National Park in Golestan Province, northeastern Iran. Geography The park is located in the eastern Alborz (Elburs) Mountains ra ...

, and to the east of Khar Turan National Park.

Landscape and vegetation

The reserve comprises 84.435 hectares of dry flat plains interrupted by rolling hills. Most of the reserve lies slightly below 1000 m, the highest point is reached at 1340 m above sea level. The mean annual precipitation is 150 mm. The Jajarm Kalshour River flows in the area . Around the reserve are some human settlements and during winter about 15.000 heads of livestock graze in the reserve. The desert-like landscape is covered with wormwood ('' Artemisia sieberi''), feather grass (''

Stipa ''Stipa'' is a genus of around 300 large perennial hermaphroditic grasses collectively known as feather grass, needle grass, and spear grass. They are placed in the subfamily Pooideae and the tribe Stipeae, which also contains many species for ...

''), saltwort (''

Salsola ''Salsola'' is a genus of the subfamily Salsoloideae in the family Amaranthaceae. The genus ''sensu stricto'' is distributed in central and southwestern Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. A common name of various members of this genus and ...

''), saxaul trees ('' Haloxylon'') and tamarisk (''

Tamarix The genus ''Tamarix'' (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Tam ...

'').

Fauna

Miandasht Wildlife Refuge is home to the rare Asiatic cheetah. Other confirmed carnivore species include striped hyena (''Hyaena hyaena''),

grey wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly ...

(''Canis lupus''), Asiatic caracal (''Caracal caracal schmitzi''), Turkestan wildcat (''Felis silvestris caudata''), red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') and common jackal (''Canis aureus aureus''). Larger herbivores are represented by goitered gazelles, low numbers of

wild sheep ''Ovis'' is a genus of mammals, part of the Caprinae subfamily of the ruminant family Bovidae. Its seven highly sociable species are known as sheep or ovines. Domestic sheep are members of the genus, and are thought to be descended from the wil ...

(''Ovis''), and Carpathian boars (''Sus scrofa attila''). Rodents and hares are abundant. The main raptors are the

long-legged buzzard The long-legged buzzard (''Buteo rufinus'') is a bird of prey found widely in several parts of Eurasia and in North Africa. This species ranges from Southeastern Europe down to East Africa to the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The long ...

(''Buteo ruffinus'') and the

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of ...

(''Aquila heliaca'').

Sightings

On January 7, 2015, Director General of Environmental Protection Department in North Khorasan announced a sighting of a female Asiatic cheetah and her cub at Miandasht Wildlife Refuge. Motahari also maintained that two days prior to this sighting, three other adult cheetahs were sighted by the locals some kilometers to the eastern border of Miandasht, and immediately reported to Jajrom Department of Environment. It is estimated that 8 to 10 cheetahs are living at the wildlife refuge.

References

External links

Miandasht Wildlife Refuge at wikimapia
{{coord, 36.9000, N, 56.8000, E, source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Protected areas of Iran Geography of North Khorasan Province