Investigating on conservation value of Damgahan area as a habitat corridor of Wild Goat (Capra aegagrus) between Kalmand- Bahadoran protected area and Shirkouh hunting prohibited area

Document Type : Ecology

Authors

Departement of Environment, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran, P.O.Box: 89195-741

Abstract

Today, habitat separation and fragmentation have serious effects on wildlife populations. Developing of protected areas and creating connection between them is one of the most important ways of dealing with this problem. Corridors play an important role in the distribution and survival of wildlife populations. This study aimed to evaluate the Damgahan region as a corridor between Kalmand- Bahaduran protected area and Shirkouh hunting prohibited area. Area of the studying region was 106 hectares. We used the present points of the species and environmental variables to asses the habitat suitability of Wild Goat by using Analysis Ecological Niche Factor. Then, corridors were defined by using habitat suitability maps and the least costly path in GIS. The most important variables influencing present of wild goats are rocky areas, slope, elevation and vegetation type. The marginality, and specialization were estimated 0.838, 3, respectively, that indicate the Wild Goat prefers the environmental conditions above than the regional average and, this species is dependent on the limited range of environmental conditions. More than 60% of the proposed corridors constitute the suitable habitat. By using these calculations, seven corridors were identified for connecting of the areas. Results showed Damgahan area has high suitable, lowest cumulative cost and the lowest human conflicts, among other corridors for Wild Goat.

Keywords


  1. Basille, M.; Calenge, C.; Marboutin, E.; Andersen, R. and Gaillard, J.M., 2008. Assessing habitat selection using multivariate statistics: some refinements of the ecological niche factor analysis. Ecol. Model. Vol. 211, pp: 233-240.
  2. Crooks, K.R. and Sanjayan, M., 2006. Connectivity Conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 
    UK. 732 p.
  3. Fox, J.L.; Sinha, S.P. and Chundawat, R.S., 1992. Activity patterns and habitat of ibex in the himalaya mountain of India. Mammalogy. Vol. 73, No. 3, pp: 527-534.
  4. Hartley, D. and Aplet, G.H., 2001. Modeling Wildlife Habitat Corridors in the Greater Grand Staircase. Escalante Ecosystem.
  5. Hirzel, A.H.; Le Lay, G.; Helfer, V.; Randin, C. and Guisan, A., 2006. Evaluation the ability of habitat suitability models to predict species presences. Ecological Modelling. Vol. 199, No .2, pp: 142-152.
  6. Hirzel, A.H.; Hausser, J. and Perrin, N., 2004. Biomapper 3.1. Lab. of Conservation Biology, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne. URL: http: //www. unil.ch/biomapper.
  7. Jenness, J.; Majka D. and Beier. P., 2014. Corridor Designer Evaluation Tools: Extension for ArcGIS. Jenness Enterprises. www.jennessent.com/arcgis/corridor.htm.
  8. Majka, D.; Jennes, J. and Beier. P., 2007. Corridor Designer: ArcGIS tools for designing and evaluating corridors. www.corridordesign.org.
  9. Meffe, G.K. and Carroll, C.R., 1997. Principles of conservation biology, 2nd edition. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.
  10. Minor, E.S. and Urban, D.L., 2007. Graph theory as a proxy for spatially explicit population models in conservation planning. Journal of Ecological Applications. Vol. 17, pp: 1771-1782.
  11. Morovati, M.; Karami, M. and Kaboli, M., 2014.Desirable Areas and Effective Environmental Factors of Wild Goat Habitat (Capra aegagrus). Int. J. Environ. Res. Vol. 8, No. 4, pp: 1031-1040.
  12. Nikolakaki, P., 2004. A GIS site-selection process for habitat creation: estimating connectivity of habitat patches. Landscape and Urban Planning. Vol. 68, pp: 77-94.
  13. Pearson, R.G.; Raxworthy, C.J.; Nakamura, M.; Peterson, A.T., 2007. Predicting species distributions from small numbers of occurrence records: a test case using cryptic geckos in Madagascar. J. Biogeogr. Vol. 34, pp: 102-117.
  14. Rabinowitz, A. and Zeller, K.A., 2010. A range-wide model of landscape connectivity and conservation for the jaguar, Panthera onca. Biol Conserv. Vol. 143, pp: 939-945.
  15. Sarhangzadeh, J.; Yavari, A.R.; Hemami, M.R.; Jafari, H.R. and Shams Esfandabad, B., 2013. Habitat suitability modeling for wild goat (Capra aegagrus) in a mountainous arid area, central Iran. Caspian J. Env. Sci. Vol. 11, No. 1, pp: 41-51.
  16. Sawyer, S.; Epps, C. and Brashares, J., 2011. Placing Linkages Among Fragmented Habitats: Do Least- Cost Models Reflect How Animals Use Landscapes? Journal of Applied Ecology.
  17. Shams, B.; Karami, M.; Hemami, M.R, Riazei B. and Sadough, M.B., 2010. Habitat associations of wild goat in central Iran: implications for conservation. European journal of wildlife research. Vol. 56, pp: 883-894.
  18. Wang, Y.; Yang, K.; Bridgman, C.L. and Lin, L., 2008. Habitat suitability modeling to correlate gene flow with landscape connectivity. Journal of Landscape Ecology. Vol. 23, pp: 989-1000.
  19. Wayumba, R.N.; Jasper, N. and MWENDA, K.; 2006. The Impact of Changing Land Tenure and Land Use on Wildlife Migration within Group Ranches in Kenya: A Case Study of the Amboseli Ecosystem, in Promoting Land Administration and Good Governance. Regional Conference Accra. Ghana. pp: 1-8.
  20. Zeller, K.A.; McGariga, L.K. and Whiteley, A.R., 2012. Estimating landscape resistance to movement. Journal of Landscape Ecology. Vol. 27, pp: 777-797.