Iran’s Department of the Environment reports that new changes to wildlife protection laws include significantly higher fines for hunting protected species.
The head of Hunting and Fishing reports that poachers will pay 100 million toumans for hunting the Asiatic cheetah and 80 million toumans for hunting the Persian leopard. They are two of the most endangered species across the country.
Hunting other species such as the brown bear, the fallow deer, the ibex and the chamois will also result in fines of 50 million to 35 million toumans.
In less than 100 years, a number of Iranian wildlife species have gone extinct, such as the Iranian lion and the Mazandaran tiger.
The Asiatic cheetah is currently the most endangered species in Iran, with the Persian leopard, fallow deer, Asiatic zebra and Caspian seal following not far behind on the endangered wildlife list.
