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.

中文翻译：

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伊朗西南部波斯豹 Panthera pardus saxicolor 的分布和栖息地适宜性建模

摘要

了解顶级捕食者的栖息地需求对于野生动物种群的生存能力至关重要。2017-2018 年期间，波斯豹 ( Panthera pardus saxicolor) 的32 点存在迹象) 被发现，它们与 6 个环境变量相关联。最大熵（Maxent）模型用于预测波斯豹在伊朗西南部吉萨坎的分布。生境适宜性模型（训练数据=0.844）的有效性证实了方法的可靠性。在 Jackknife 检验的基础上，离村庄的距离（离村庄越远的存在越少），离水资源的距离（离水源越远，存在的越少），海拔和坡度（大多数存在于海拔 600-1400 m asl和坡度 30-70%）、与道路的距离（距离道路越远，存在越多）和土地覆盖（在林地中存在的越多）变量分别是最重要的变量。结果表明，25.19% 的面积（115.13 km ²)包含合适的栖息地。我们建议对豹子的保护和管理计划在没有正式保护的地区进行，例如研究区。这项研究的结果还可以帮助我们确定和保护适合保护和管理的栖息地，并减少野生动物与人类之间的冲突。