Identifying high-quality habitat (i.e., areas with resources and conditions suitable to support long-term species persistence) is a priority for conservation, but estimating habitat quality is expensive and time consuming. Instead managers often rely on occurrence data or models of habitat suitability, but these data are only proximally related to individual and population persistence on the landscape. In most habitat suitability modeling studies, researchers treat the model as a hypothesis and the occurrence data as the truth. But occurrence does not always correlate with habitat as expected; therefore, occurrence data may be unreliable. We propose that suitability models and occurrence data be given equal weight to highlight areas of disagreement for future demographic study. To highlight this approach, we used the giant kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ingens) as a case study because their distinct burrow mounds allow for remote monitoring of short-term presence and long-term persistence. We conducted trapping, manned aerial surveys, and aerial imagery surveys in the San Joaquin Desert in California, USA, between 2001 and 2017 and compared the results to an existing habitat suitability model to provide estimates of long-term persistence based on the presence of burrow mounds made by giant kangaroo rats. We treated areas of positive agreement as priorities for habitat conservation and areas of negative agreement as areas managers could ignore. Remaining areas should be prioritized for additional occupancy and demographic studies. From an initial area of 17,385 km², we identified 668 km² of currently occupied high-quality habitat. Of this, just 135 km² was on private land and therefore requiring protection. We classified 1,498 km² (8.6%) for additional research. Of that area, 744 km² was flagged for additional occupancy surveys. Our 3 data sets disagreed over 754 km², suggesting a need for further demographic studies to reveal important population-habitat relationships for the species in those areas. This approach can be useful as part of any habitat conservation exercise for prioritizing protection or targeting future demographic studies. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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结合发生和栖息地适宜性数据改进对巨型袋鼠的保护指南

确定优质栖息地（即资源和条件适合支持物种长期存在的地区）是保护的优先事项，但评估栖息地质量既昂贵又耗时。相反，管理者通常依赖发生数据或栖息地适宜性模型，但这些数据仅与景观上的个体和种群持久性密切相关。在大多数栖息地适宜性建模研究中，研究人员将模型视为假设，将发生数据视为事实。但发生并不总是如预期的那样与栖息地相关。因此，发生的数据可能不可靠。我们建议赋予适宜性模型和发生数据同等的权重，以突出未来人口统计研究的分歧领域。为了突出这种方法，我们使用了巨型袋鼠（Dipodomys ingens）作为案例研究，因为它们独特的洞穴土丘允许远程监控短期存在和长期持久性。2001 年至 2017 年期间，我们在美国加利福尼亚州的圣华金沙漠进行了诱捕、载人航空调查和航空影像调查，并将结果与​​现有的栖息地适宜性模型进行了比较，以提供基于洞穴存在的长期持续性估计由巨型袋鼠鼠制成的土墩。我们将积极一致的区域视为栖息地保护的优先事项，将消极一致的区域视为区域管理者可以忽略的。其余区域应优先用于额外的入住率和人口统计研究。从 17,385 km ²的初始区域，我们确定了 668 km ²目前占据的优质栖息地。其中，只有 135 km ²位于私人土地上，因此需要保护。我们对 1,498 km ² (8.6%) 进行了分类以进行进一步研究。在该区域中，有 744 km ²被标记为进行额外的占用调查。我们的 3 个数据集在 754 km ^{2 范围内}不一致，这表明需要进一步的人口统计研究来揭示这些地区物种的重要种群-栖息地关系。这种方法可以作为任何栖息地保护工作的一部分，用于优先保护或针对未来的人口研究。© 2021 野生动物协会。