Modeling the Habitat Suitability of Persian Leopard (Panthera Pardus Saxicolor) in the Conservation Areas of Kohkiloye-and-Boyer-Ahmad, Iran

Aims:The study of the habitat of Persian leopard (Panthera pardus) as a keystone effective species in the ecosystem services is significantly essential in terms of protection. Habitat modeling and preparing the suitability map of that habitat is one of the ways of obtaining information and identifying the activity and behavior of species. Materials and Methods: MaxEnt method was used in the presence data of the leopard and contributing factors in species distribution. Ultimately, habitat suitability modeling (HSM) maps obtained from this method were validated by using ground monitoring and the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot. The most suitable habitat for this species was introduced. Findings: Results showed that distance from the range of the wild goat (Capra aegagrus) and the slope are the most critical factor in the distribution of Persian leopard in this province. Several factors, including distance from the conservation areas (CAs), distance from ranger posts, distance from rivers, distance from mines, geographic aspects, distance from water resources, elevation, distance from roads, and distance from villages, were the other important factors affecting the species HSM. Also, the most favorable habitat in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province is in cold regions at an altitude of 3300-3700 m, in tropical regions of 2000 to 2500, and on slopes more than 30% and in the west-northwest and the north directions. Conclusion: based on the hidden correlations between the variables used in modeling habitat desirability of the leopard, the model with high performance and accuracy (AUC=0.927) predicts desirable and undesirable areas for the habitat of this species.