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Modeling the Distribution and Habitat Suitability of Persian Leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor in Southwestern Iran

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Abstract

Awareness of the habitat needs of top predators is vital for viability of wildlife populations. During 2017–2018, 32 points of presence signs of the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) were spotted and they were associated to 6 environmental variables. The maximum entropy (Maxent) model was used to predict the distribution of Persian leopards in the Gisakan, south-western Iran. The validity of habitat suitability model (Training data = 0.844) confirmed the reliability of method. On the basis of Jackknife test, distance from the villages (less presence far from the villages), distance from water resources (the farther from the water resource, the less presence), elevation and slope (most presence in elevations 600–1400 m a. s. l. and slopes 30–70%), distance from the roads (the farther from roads, the more presence) and land cover (more presence in woodlands) variables, respectively, were the most important variables. The results indicate that 25.19% of area (115.13 km2) contains suitable habitat. We suggest that conservation and management plans for leopards be conducted on areas such as studied area that are not formally protected. The results of this study can also help us to identify and protect suitable habitats for conservation and management as well as decrease wildlife–human conflicts.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are very grateful to provincial DoE of Boushehr province for their helps and advices during fieldwork.

Funding

The research was financially supported by a grant (no. 6/242179) from The Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology funded to Seyed Mehdi Amininasab.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology, Behbahan, Iran

    S. Poursalem, S. M. Amininasab, N. Zamani & M. Mardani

  2. Bushehr Provincial Office of the Department of the Environment (DOE), Bushehr, Iran

    S. Poursalem

  3. Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran

    S. M. Amininasab

  4. University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

    N. Zamani

  5. Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran

    K. Almasieh

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Poursalem, S., Amininasab, S.M., Zamani, N. et al. Modeling the Distribution and Habitat Suitability of Persian Leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor in Southwestern Iran. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 48, 319–330 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359021030122

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359021030122

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