Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
2
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ardakan University, Ardakan, Iran
3
Department of Supervision and Monitoring Expert of Environmental Protection, Bardskan, Mashhad, Iran
4
Expert in charge of Habitats and Regional Affairs of the General Department of Environmental Protection, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: Habitat destruction is one of the main threats to biodiversity. Today, large mammals, especially herbivores such as wild goat, is more exposed to habitat destruction and extinction than other wildlife species. Therefore, predicting the distribution of a species in the habitat is considered as a fundamental element of conservation biology. Despite the widespread distribution of wild goat in Iran, accurate information on its habitat selection is not available, especially in the northeastern regions of the country. Accordingly, identifying and evaluating spatial patterns of habitat hot spots for this species in these areas is essential. The aim of this study is to assess the habitat of ibex and goats in the Daruneh protected area of Khorasan-e Razavi province and identify its habitat hot spots.
Material and Methods: For this purpose, upon collecting data on the species presence, using field surveys and direct observation and traces left behind, such as dung and footprints during the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter of 2023 and recording their location using a global positioning device (GPS), as well as preparing environmental data including elevation, slope, aspect, distance from residential areas, distance from water sources and distance from the road, the habitat suitability of this species was modeled using MaxEnt software and the maximum entropy method. The number of presence data points to import the model was 79. Subsequently, spatial data mining techniques were employed to identify habitat hotspots using spatial statistics, specifically the Getis-Ord Gi* hotspot analysis and Anselin Local Moran's I spatial autocorrelation analysis within a spatial information system environment (GIS). The model's performance was evaluated using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that the central areas of the study area have the greatest potential to meet the habitat needs of wild goat across the studied area and the model has a high ability to predict the distribution of the wild goat. The model sensitivity analysis using the Jackknife method determined that the variables of distance from water sources, distance from residential areas and distance from the road have a higher priority for the habitat suitability of the wild goat in this area. The results of spatial data mining indicated that the Getis-Ord Gi* method has a higher accuracy for identifying habitat spots of the target species and identifies habitat hot spots with an accuracy of 94%.
Conclusion: Assessing the suitability of wildlife habitat is essential for the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation strategies. Based on the results of this study, it was found that both approaches used have relatively good ability to identify habitat hot spots and priority conservation areas for the wild goat species and can be used as a suitable criterion for measuring the accuracy of habitat modeling of wild goat in the study area. In general, identifying habitat hot spots is a powerful tool for integrating wildlife management approaches and biodiversity conservation. The results of this study can be used by wildlife managers to identify places with high conservation value and improve management and conservation approaches related to desirable wild goat habitats in the study area.
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