Khar Turan National Park


Khar Turan National Park or Touran Wildlife Refuge is a National Park in Iran. It is situated in the Semnan province, southeast of Shahrud. With a size of, it is the second largest reserve in Iran.

Fauna

Khar Turan is home to one of the largest populations of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah. There were about 12 – 15 of these cats in the area. Occasional reports of females with cubs indicate a breeding and perhaps growing population. On late December 2014, four new cheetahs have been spotted by camera traps. Another four new individuals consisting of a female and her three cubs had been reported in January 2015, after another eleven new cheetahs were spotted a month before, and an additional eight cheetahs had been spotted in July 2015. With the increasing numbers of cheetahs in Khar Turan, there is an estimated population of between 39 and 42 individuals.
Khar Turan has the largest population of Persian onager, and two species of gazelles: the goitered gazelle and Indian gazelle, both in good numbers. There are also wild sheep and goats in the reserve.