Abstract
Habitat evaluation constitutes an important and fundamental step in the management of wildlife populations and conservation policy planning. Geographic information system (GIS) and species presence data provide the means by which such evaluation can be done. Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) is widely used in habitat suitability modeling due to its power of accuracy and additional descriptive properties. To survey snow leopard populations in Qomolangma (Mt. Everest) National Nature Reserve (QNNR), Xizang (Tibet), China, we pooled 127 pugmarks, 415 scrape marks, and 127 non-invasive identifications of the animal along line transects and recorded 87 occurrences through camera traps from 2014–2017. We adopted the MaxEnt model to generate a map highlighting the extent of suitable snow leopard habitat in QNNR. Results showed that the accuracy of the MaxEnt model was excellent (mean AUC=0.921). Precipitation in the driest quarter, ruggedness, elevation, maximum temperature of the warmest month, and annual mean temperature were the main environmental factors influencing habitat suitability for snow leopards, with contribution rates of 20.0%, 14.4%, 13.3%, 8.7%, and 8.2% respectively. The suitable habitat area extended for 7 001.93 km2, representing 22.72% of the whole reserve. The regions bordering Nepal were the main suitable snow leopard habitats and consisted of three separate habitat patches. Our findings revealed that precipitation, temperature conditions, ruggedness, and elevations of around 4 000 m a.s.l. influenced snow leopard preferences at the landscape level in QNNR. We advocate further research and cooperation with Nepal to evaluate habitat connectivity and to explore possible proxies of population isolation among these patches. Furthermore, evaluation of subdivisions within the protection zones of QNNR is necessary to improve conservation strategies and enhance protection.
Highlights
Wildlife habitat is defined as the surrounding environment where wild animals can accomplish their life cycle (Cody, 1987; Jiang et al, 2012)
It is estimated that China contains approximately 60% of the potential habitat available to snow leopards, who are reported to reside in the western provinces of Xinjiang, Xizang (Tibet), Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Inner Mongolia (McCarthy & Chapron, 2003; Riordan & Shi, 2010, 2016)
Environmental factors influencing snow leopard habitat selection Our results showed that precipitation in the driest quarter (BIO17), ruggedness, elevation, maximum temperature of the warmest month (BIO5), and annual mean temperature (BIO1) were the five main factors influencing snow leopard habitat suitability in QNNR
Summary
Wildlife habitat is defined as the surrounding environment where wild animals can accomplish their life cycle (Cody, 1987; Jiang et al, 2012). The habitat suitability index (HSI) is a measure of the ability for a habitat to sustain a species and is an important indicator for the quality of a given habitat (Jin et al, 2008; Lu et al, 2012; Song et al, 2014). Such evaluation constitutes one of the first steps in wildlife protection and management, offering a scientific rationale for the improvement of conservation policies (Liu et al, 2013). Snow leopard-oriented research spans a diverse range of areas, including abundance and density (Alexander et al, 2015; Jackson et al, 2006), home range (Johansson et al, 2016), diet (Wang et al, 2014), behavior (Li et al, 2013), genetic diversity (Janecka et al, 2017), climate change impact (Aryal et al, 2014d, 2016), human-snow leopard conflict (Aryal et al, 2014b; Chen et al, 2016), and translocation of prey species (Aryal et al, 2013)
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