Luke Hunter

of Panthera

Dr. Luke Hunter is the President of Panthera (www.panthera.org) and has worked on the ecology and conservation of wild carnivores since 1992. His current projects include assessing the effects of sport hunting on leopards and lions, working with teams in the Brazilian Pantanal to reduce the conflict between ranchers and jaguars, and the first intensive study of Persian leopards and the last surviving Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. Hunter supervises graduate students working on carnivores around the world including the first comprehensive studies on some little-known species such as African golden cats and Sunda clouded leopards. Luke Hunter has contributed to over 100 scientific papers and popular articles, and has published six books including ‘Cheetah’ (2003), ‘Cats of Africa: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation’ (2006) and ‘A Field Guide to Carnivores of the World’ (2011). Photo by Steve Winter.

Finding the Last Cheetahs of Iran

Posted by Luke Hunter of Panthera on October 25, 2012
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This week, National Geographic magazine published extraordinary new images of wild Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. That National Geographic was able to photograph these rarest of cheetahs is testament to 11 years of conservation work by the Iranian Department of Environment. As the only country on Earth that has managed to keep this remarkable cat alive, Iran deserves to be congratulated. (Photo by Frans Lanting, from the November 2012 issue of National Geographic Magazine.)