Many species occur on unprotected lands, but continuing human pressure makes them rare especially outside protected areas (PAs). The corsac fox is a common predator in Central Asia, but rare in Iran and its conservation status is poorly understood. We aimed to assess its distribution in relation to natural and human factors. Using 31 occurrence records of corsac and 272 of its main prey species, we used maximum entropy modeling to determine the key factors affecting corsac distribution, find priority conservation areas and evaluate the role of PAs. We found that corsac presence was strongly inversely associated with the distance to gerbil burrows, land use and distance to PA, followed by precipitation, vegetation types, distance to villages, road density and distance to river. Corsacs mostly occurred outside PAs, with highly suitable habitats covering only 6.3% of the study area and one PA covering 11% of highly suitable habitats. Our results suggest that, in Iran, the corsac may tolerate some landscape modification, but its distribution is strongly related to its main prey and low intensity of land use. We suggest to expand the existing no-hunting areas (unclassified by the IUCN) and upgrade them to better managed PAs compliant with international standards.

许多物种出现在未受保护的土地上，但是持续的人为压力使得它们很少见，尤其是在保护区（PA）以外。柯萨克斯狐狸在中亚是一种常见的捕食者，但在伊朗很少见，对其保护状况知之甚少。我们旨在评估其与自然和人为因素有关的分布。我们使用31条Corsac发生记录和272种主要猎物记录，使用最大熵模型确定影响Corsac分布的关键因素，找到优先保护区并评估PA的作用。我们发现，树皮的存在与到沙鼠洞穴的距离，土地利用和到PA的距离成反比，其次是降水，植被类型，到村庄的距离，道路密度和到河的距离。Corsacs大多发生在PA之外，高度适合的栖息地仅占研究区域的6.3％，而一个PA可以覆盖高度适合的栖息地11％。我们的结果表明，在伊朗，小树皮可以忍受某些景观变化，但其分布与其主要猎物和土地利用强度低密切相关。我们建议扩大现有的禁猎区（IUCN未分类），并将其升级为符合国际标准的管理更完善的保护区。