One of Asia’s last cheetahs has died in Iran

One of the last Asian cheetahs in the world died Tuesday in Iran, causing a wave of sadness among Iranians who had fallen in love with this young feline born in captivity in 2022. “Pirouz, who had been admitted to the ‘Central Veterinary Hospital for kidney failure on Thursday, died after undergoing dialysis,’ the official IRNA agency reported. “We are very saddened by the loss of Pirouz and the failure of all the efforts made to save him,” reacted the head of the hospital, doctor Omid Moradi.

The young Pirouz (“victorious” in Persian) had become a national pride since his birth in May 2022, in a refuge in eastern Iran. This event was welcomed when there would remain in Iran only a dozen Asian cheetahs, a species in critical danger of extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Since his hospitalization, many Internet users had expressed their emotion on social networks. “Pirouz is the only source of happiness for the Nation”, underlined one of them on Twitter. Others said they feared the definitive “extinction” of the subspecies “Acinonyx jubatus venaticus”, commonly known as the Asian cheetah or the Iranian cheetah, in the event of Pirouz’s death.

The cheetah is the fastest animal in the world and can reach a speed of 120 km/h. It is still found in parts of southern Africa, but has virtually disappeared from North Africa and Asia. Iran, one of the last countries in the world where Asian cheetahs live in the wild, launched a United Nations-backed conservation program in 2001.