Abstract
The purpose of this study was to create maps of potentially sustainable leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) habitats for all of South Korea. The leopard cat, which is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, is the only member of the Felidae family in Korea. To create habitat potential maps, we selected various environmental factors potentially affecting the species’ distribution from a spatial database derived from geographic information system (GIS) data: elevation, slope, distance from a forest stand, road, or drainage, timber type, age, and land cover. We analyzed the spatial relationships between the distribution of the leopard cat and the environmental factors using a frequency ratio model and a logistic regression model. We then overlaid these relationships to produce a habitat potential map with a species potential index (SPI) value. Of the total number of known leopard cat locations, we used 50% for mapping and the remaining 50% for model validation. Our models were relatively successful and showed a high level of accuracy during model validation with existing locations (frequency ratio model 82.15%; logistic regression model 81.48%). The maps can be used to manage and monitor the habitat of mammal species and top predators.
Highlights
Long-term persistence of biodiversity is the ultimate goal of most conservation plans (Minor [1]).Maintaining biodiversity is important because identifying the species critical to the maintenance of ecosystem stability or those that will be useful human resources in the future is not always easy (Burton [2])
We evaluated the spatial data using the frequency ratio model to reveal correlations between the distribution of the leopard cat and various environmental factors (Table 1) in the study area
Relationships between the distribution of the leopard cat and topography-related environmental factors derived from the digital elevation model (DEM; Table 2) are as follows
Summary
Maintaining biodiversity is important because identifying the species critical to the maintenance of ecosystem stability or those that will be useful human resources in the future is not always easy (Burton [2]). The most effective way to conserve biodiversity globally is to focus on the protection of high biodiversity areas (Myers [3]). One method of identifying these areas is to model top predator habitats, which are often biodiversity hot spots (Schmitz [4], Sergio [5], Gavashelishvili [6]). Carnivores are major predators and scavengers in terrestrial ecosystems. Understanding their status is important for understanding ecosystem integrity in regions of high human disturbance. Since 2002, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed it as a species of least concern
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