The Caracal in Iran - Current State of Knowledge and Pri- Orities for Conservation
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Moqanaki et al. EHSAN M. MOQANAKI1*, MOHAMMAD S. FARHADINIA1,2, MAHDIEH TOURANI3 AND HOS- SEIN AKBARI4 The caracal in Iran - current state of knowledge and pri- orities for conservation Little information is present regarding biology and ecology of the caracal Caracal caracal in Iran. The majority of the available information comes from cheetah re- serves in the central provinces, where about a decade of monitoring initiatives and extensive camera trapping surveys have been conducted. The caracal occurs in a wide variety of habitats across Iran, and presence records are currently lack- ing only from the Caspian Sea region, hyper-arid central deserts, and the Iranian Caucasus. The Iranian caracal’s diet purportedly includes a great variety of prey of different sizes from small rodents and birds to medium-sized ungulates. Occa- sional predation on domestic small stock is likely to bring the caracal into conflict Fig. 1. A caracal in the vicinity of Nadus- with local pastoralists. In spite of being highly adaptable and widely distributed, han, Yazd Province, in May 2009. Accused the caracal is in need for conservation attention. The main conservation priorities of killing domestic fowl, this caracal was for the caracal in Iran are scientific research and mitigating negative interactions chased by local villagers into a water ca- between caracals and traditional pastoralists. The caracal has been the subject of nal to get drowned, but was eventually little empirical research in Iran, and elsewhere outside southern Africa. Here, we rescued by the local wildlife authority provide a thorough summary of what is known to date about the caracal in Iran, (Photo H. Moghimi). enriched with reliable field observations, unpublished reports, and anecdotal ac- counts. By summarizing the current state of knowledge about the biology and ecol- C. aurata, and serval Leptailurus serval are ogy of Iranian caracals, we provide suggestions for future research, as well as pri- grouped together (Johnson et al. 2006, Wer- ority conservation actions. delin et al. 2010). 27 There is a necessity to accurately define the We performed a comprehensive review of concolor. The tail is proportionally short and subspecies classification so that the caracal’s existing literature referencing aspects of ca- reaches up to one-third of the body length. conservation status can be determined. Al- racal ecology and natural history, including Males are larger and heavier than females. though their geographical distribution is not peer-reviewed papers and grey literature, Adults in Iran weigh between 7.3 to 25 kg well defined, the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist as well as an extensive attempt to collect (Table 1). Though seasonal variation may Group recognizes eight subspecies (Nowell unpublished reports and field observations exist, the Middle Eastern caracals are paler & Jackson 1996): (1) C. c. caracal in South by interrogating with Iranian biologists, and and relatively smaller than African caracals Africa; (2) C. c. limpopoensis in the North- trained rangers, taxidermists, and hunters. (Harrison & Bates 1991). The coat ground co- ern province of Limpopo in South Africa to Finally, we briefly reviewed a large dataset lour is uniform, varies from light sandy to red- Zimba-bwe; (3) C. c. damarensis in Namibia; of camera-trap surveys aimed at the Asiatic dish-brown, and whitish on the underparts. (4) C. c. nubicus in the Nubian Desert west- cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus between Apart from scattered lighter-coloured spots ward to Cameroon; (5) C. c. poecilictis from 2002 and 2013. Following Moqanaki et al. on the belly and undersides of the animal’s Nigeria and the grasslands of southeastern (2010), we assessed reliability of each record chest and legs, no distinct marking pattern Gabon (where previously it was suggested individually by considering whether any hard is present. Facial marking of dark lines and for later dismissed lucani); (6) C. c. algirus in evidences (e.g. photo, video, carcass, muse- white patches occur inside the nose and North Africa; (7) C. c. schmitzi from the Sinai um specimen of known origin, genetic sam- eyes’ edges. The most unambiguous cha- Peninsula through West Asia to India; (8) C. ple) are present, or only soft evidences are racteristics are the well-developed, silvery c. michaelis in the Caspian region of Turkme- available. We considered all such records be- black-backed ears, accompanied by long nistan eastward to the Amu Darya (River). fore 2000 as ‘historical’, and classified hard black tufted hairs (Fig. 1). The Iranian subspecies is considered to be evidences as ‘C1’, and soft evidences as ‘C2’. schmitzi, although michaelis might occur in The remaining ambiguous records were not Taxonomy the north-east of the country as well (Karami considered in this study. The caracal was first classified by Schre- et al. 2008, Hassan-Beigi et al. 2014). ber (1776) as a species of the genus Lynx, Description however, later assigned to the Felis group. Habitat The caracal is a medium-sized cat of Africa More recent incorporation of morphological Despite being highly adaptable, caracals and Asia, almost twice the size of a domes- and molecular studies has proposed a new apparently prefer drier open terrains with tic cat. However, with a slender body build lineage, Caracal, with two genera, Caracal sufficient shelter and vegetation cover and and long legs, caracals appear much larger and Leptailurus. Hence, three species of Ca- avoid true deserts and dense tropical rain superficially resembling a small puma Puma racal, caracal C. caracal, African golden cat forests (Heptner & Sludskii 1972, Weisbein Cats in Iran caracal Table 1. Measurement and weights of caracals from Iran (n= 21). Sex: F = female, M bution (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002, Breiten- = male, ? = sex unknown. W = weight, HB = head-body length; T = tail length; SH = moser-Würsten et al. 2008). shoulder height. Literature on the current distribution of the ca- Location, Province Sex W (kg) HB (cm) T (cm) SH (cm) racal in Iran is still limited in Etemad’s (1985) work (Firouz 2005, Karami et al. 2008, Ziaie Chahar-Khaneh, Esfahan F N/A 73 27 45 2008). However, due to recent cheetah sur- Shiraz-Kouh, Esfahan M 13.0 78 27 46 veys using remotely triggered camera traps, Kouh-e Parviz, Esfahan F N/A 70 24 44 a wealth of up-to-date and reliable records Anarak, Esfahan F 8.4 69 21 43 are available (see Supporting Online Mate- Abbas Abad, Esfahan M N/A 81 28 47 rial SOM T1). Previously, the most represen- Zavar, Esfahan M 4.0 39 16 27 tative information on current distribution of caracals in the country had been proposed by Hormod PA, Fars ? N/A 82 24 N/A Ghoddousi et al. (2009), which is a modified Moshajjareh, Esfahan M 11.0 76 26 45 version of the Etemad’s map updated by more Chupanan, Esfahan F 9.2 77 23 43 recent observations. No further information Kouh-e Zard, Esfahan M 8.8 69 N/A 43 on the origin of the data is presented. Mousa- Shahrud, Semnan ? 12.0 105 27 37 vi (2010) also endeavoured to map the range Southeast Semnan, Semnan ? 10.3 109 N/A N/A of the caracal in Iran. However, the author Vicinity of Naein city, Esfahan ? 13.0 N/A N/A N/A ignored the previous literature and exclusively shaded the eastern and central part of Iran. Abbas Abad WR, Esfahan M 13.6 80 26 44 The majority of the C1 records are restricted Parvand PA, Razavi Khorasan M 10.5 91.5 32.5 N/A to the central provinces of Iran (Fig. 2) where, Jen-e Naein, Esfahan F N/A 66 21 39 more than a decade of field surveys for Ashtian, Esfahan M 12.0 82 28 47 cheetahs has been undertaken (Jourabchian Abbas Abad WR, Esfahan F 7.3 75 23 42 & Farhadinia 2008). The caracal marginally Tang-e Haft, Lorestan M 25.0 * N/A N/A N/A occurs in western Iran as well. In the south in Sistan-va-Baluchestan, Hormozagan and Abbas Abad WR, Esfahan M 9.8 67 26 42 Bushehr Provinces, the caracal has rarely 28 Abbas Abad WR, Esfahan F 5.9 56 22 37 been recorded. To our knowledge, no relia- * We could neither verify nor reject this measurement. As long as no additional evidence is available, we suggest to cite ble records exist from the Iranian Caspian this specimen with caution. region either. Overall, the Global Mammal Assessment distribution (data in Breiten- & Mendelssohn 1990, Avenant & Nel 1998, (Sunquist & Sunquist 2002). Despite a lack of moser-Würsten et al. 2008) provides a good Adibi et al. 2014, Singh et al. 2014). Caracals empirical data, the species is thought to be representation of the caracal distribution in in Iran live in a wide variety of habitats: from in decline in Iran (Ziaie 2008). Iran. However, the caracal‘s occurrence in the the temperate Kopet Dag plains in the north- In Iran, the distribution of the caracal has Iranian Caucasus must be evaluated, and it is eastern-most corner to the semi-arid moun- been poorly documented. It seems that the likely that the caracal‘s distribution is more tainous woodlands of Central Zagros in the species has a broad distribution (Fig. 2). Lay extended in southern Iran. west, and from southern Alborz forest step- (1967) reviewed previous accounts from Per- pes through the central extreme dry lands to sia and together with his findings provided North-eastern Iran (North, Razavi, and South the semi-desert coasts of the Persian Gulf only four records from Khuzestan, Kerman, Khorasan Provinces) (see Distribution; Fig. 2). Camera-trapping and Tehran Provinces. Etemad (1985) noted Prior to 2000, the only official evidence of surveys in Iran have captured the animal at 10 new reports, together with the first evi- caracal occurrence on the Khorasan region stations mostly characterized by dry riverbeds dence from the Zagros region.