Naybandan Wildlife Refuge

 180 km south of Tabas, Yazd province, is the largest reserve in Iran with 1.5 million ha. Naybandan has recently been given legal protection and is known today to hold the highest population of the Iranian cheetah - at least 15. A fairly low population of Jebeer gazelle and also wild sheep and wild goat inhabit the area. Furthermore, the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) is the only large carnivore present in the area, with a high population. Naybandan has been a traditional passage for drug smugglers from the Iran's eastern border with Afghanistan, so that fear of being caught by the smugglers inhibited poachers. Thus the cheetah could survive without protective measurements in the area.  At present, preventive activities by the Iranian Army on the Afghan border has limited smugglers’ activities while conservation has been enhanced remarkably by the Iranian Department of the Environment (DOE) in recent years