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The Curious Hyena in Miandasht

August 2005- A curious striped hyena took away one of the camera traps in Miandasht.  

In a recent camera trapping effort, a young hyena encountered a camera trap on a waterhole and tried to find out more about it. The animal came closer and bit it to taste the camera... After 1 month searching, we found the camera 100 meters away from the waterhole with a slightly broken case. Fortunately, it was locked and still is working well.

Since Sep 2004, ICS is conducting a camera trapping survey  to establish a population base for the cheetah in Miandasht. Also, surveys have been done to evaluate the cheetah-human conflict in the area. Recently, a game guard encountered a cheetah among a herd of domestic sheep. Behzad says "In early morning, I was riding on motorbike when I saw a pale animal suspected to be a wolf inside a dry watercourse near a herd of domestic sheep. However, when I came closer, I found that the animal was a cheetah." He continues "The animal climbed up and passed through the herd, a few sheep run away a few meter, but when they see that there is no danger, they did not move anymore." The herd was not accompanied by herd dogs at the moment and the cheetah continued its way to the hills. There are 3 hypothesis: Maybe the cheetah is not an enemy at all, or the cheetah could be, but the animal was probably full, earlier finished a perfect meal. Finally, it is imaginable that the cheetah is a danger, but when the animal ambushing for the sheep encountered the game guard, it gave up the herd and went its way. However, this is an interesting encounter!!!