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Modeling habitat suitability for Yunnan Snub-nosed monkeys in Laojun Mountain National Park

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A Correction to this article was published on 23 November 2019

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Abstract

We provide new information on Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) behavioral ecology, contributing to future conservation efforts within the Laojun Mountain National Park. Habitat evaluation procedures are used to quantify the value of land as a habitat for a species. We analyzed environmental variables hypothesized to influence habitat suitability for Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, and mapped the distribution of suitable habitats across the study area and adjacent areas. Spatial analysis with GPS data was conducted to investigate home-range change of these monkeys. Predictor variables were generated using ArcMap and R programming language. We prepared 34 environmental variables at 30-m spatial resolution. Maxent was used to analyze environmental variables that contributed to suitability. Using satellite remote sensing and GIS, we modeled the distribution of suitable habitat for Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in the Jinsichang area of the Laojun Mountains in China. This study did not describe the frequency or intensity of habitat use. Habitat suitability was affected by several variables, the most influential, as determined by permutation importance, being mean diurnal temperature range (31.6%), precipitation during the wettest quarter of the year (30.4%), average annual precipitation (17%), normalized difference vegetation index (5%), wetness (4.6%), and aspect (4.5%). This habitat suitability model provides information about the current distribution of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, which is important for appropriate implementation of conservation actions.

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Change history

  • 23 November 2019

    The correct name of the last author should be ‘‘Tetsuro Matsuzawa’’, and not ‘‘Tetsuro Matsuzwa’’ as given in the original publication of the article.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by MEXT 24000001 and 16H06283, JSPS core-to-core CCSN, and JSPS leading graduate program U04 (PWS) to TM. Support from Kyoto University and The Nature Conservancy is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge Lijiang Laojun Mountain Biodiversity Conservation Center, Yulong Forestry Bureau and Lijiang Laojun Mountain National Park Management Bureau Lijiang Laojun Mountain Community Patrol Team, and Yulong Wildlife Protection Association. We thank Mallory Eckstut, PhD, from Edanz Group (http://www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Jie Liu, Maegan Fitzgerald & Satoshi Hirata

  2. Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto, Japan

    Tetsuro Matsuzawa

  3. The Nature Conservancy, Lijiang, Yunnan, China

    Haohong Liao & Xiaolan Li

  4. The Nature Conservancy, Beijing, China

    Yongmei Luo & Tong Jin

  5. Lijiang Laojun Mountain Biodiversity Conservation Center, Lijiang, Yunnan, China

    Xuerong Yang

Authors
  1. Jie Liu
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  2. Maegan Fitzgerald
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  3. Haohong Liao
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  4. Yongmei Luo
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  5. Tong Jin
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  6. Xiaolan Li
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  7. Xuerong Yang
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  9. Tetsuro Matsuzawa
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Contributions

LJ, MF, SH, and TM conceived and designed this study. LJ, HL, and XY conducted the data collection. LJ and MF analyzed data and wrote the paper. LJ, MF, HL, YL, XL, SH, and TM reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jie Liu or Haohong Liao.

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The original version of this article was revised due to a correction in the last author name in author group.

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Liu, J., Fitzgerald, M., Liao, H. et al. Modeling habitat suitability for Yunnan Snub-nosed monkeys in Laojun Mountain National Park. Primates 61, 277–287 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-019-00767-4

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