Habitat suitability models of mountain ungulates: identifying potential areas for conservation

摘要

Background: Determining the distribution of species and of suitable habitats is afundamental part of conservation planning. We used slope and ruggedness of the terrain,forest type and distance to the nearest village to construct habitat suitability maps forthree mountain ungulates (barking deer ( ), Himalayangoral ( ) and Himalayan serow ( )) inthe midhills of western Nepal. We used locations of sightings andsigns of presence of these mountain ungulates collected during surveys along transect toderive a suitability value for each variable using Jacob’s index. A multiplicationapproach was used to combine environmental variables andproduce a habitat suitability mapfor each of the three species. An independent dataset was used to evaluate the maps usingBoyce’s index. This approach provides an overview of the probable distributions of thespecies in question.