Hunting Tourism Map of Wild Goat: Antalya District

Abstract

The wild goat (Capra aegagrus) has a very widespread area in our Turkey and is an important species in terms of hunting tourism. Every year, inventory studies are regularly carried out in all areas where these species have distributed in Turkey. Native and foreign hunters are allowed to hunting these species by giving certain quota determined for each year and thus economic income is provided to the country. Generally, in hunting tourism, male individuals older than the age of 8 years are important. In this study, presence data matrix was prepared by determining the areas where the individuals aged 8 years and above have been located according to the counts made after hunting in Antalya region in 2016. Slope, elevation, aspect, topographic position index and ruggedness variables that are selected considering of the biology of wild goat were use for modelling. These variables were cut in local scale by using ArcGIS 10.2 software and each was prepared as a layer in ascii format. The modelling process was carried out using MaxEnt method that run via maximum entropy approach and use only presence data, and Random Forest method that run via both presence and absence data. The Roc value for MaxEnt was 0.852 and the Roc value for Random Forest method was 0.927. These results show that the models obtained by both methods are valid. The maps obtained by both models were intersected to determine the most suitable areas for wild goats. The hunting tourism map of the wild goat was obtained by using 0.6 reference value for suitable areas on the map that was acquired using intersect. And the map show that current and potential hunting areas were determined. As a result, this map is very important in terms of being a guide for hunting tourism in study area and being the first hunting tourism map of wild goats.