Seasonal changes in distribution of suitable habitats for Persian goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) in Isfahan province

Persian Goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) is one of the globally and locally threatened bovines inhabiting in the plains of Iran. There are many studies conducted on the habitat suitability modeling for the species in Iran, however, seasonal variations in the distribution of suitable habitat has not been yet evaluated. To this aim, we used independent species presence data which were collected in the field surveys as well as those which was reported by the game guards during spring 2017 to winter 2018. Maximum entropy modeling approach (MaxEnt )) was applied to relate the habitat suitability of the species in each season to the potential environmental variables in the presence points. The outputs of the model indicated that elevation is the most important variable contributing to the habitat suitability of the species in each season. Moreover, the distribution of suitable habitats in autumn differs drastically from other seasons. The current protected area network of Isfahan province indicates the lowest efficiency regarding the conservation of suitable habitats in the fall which is very critical as the mating event will occure. Isfahan mostly encompass the suitable habitats for spring and the least situated suitable habitats belong to autumn. Based on our findings, we suggest that the current boundaries of protected area network in Isfahan should be reconsidered and redesigned to cover the year round suitable habitats for the species.