Kavir National Park

 Some 50 km southeast of the capital, Tehran, with 670,000 ha. Once called the “Iran's Little Africa”, Kavir was the habitat of almost all the Iranian desert species, but after the revolution in 1979 human persecution led to eradication of the onager and a decline in the Persian gazelle to a few dozen. It is estimated that there is a population of less than 10 cheetahs in the area, often seen in the valleys and dried river beds looking for wild sheep and Jebeer gazelle.