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Modeling habitat suitability for the lesser-known populations of endangered mountain nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni) in the Arsi and Ahmar Mountains, Ethiopia.
Worku, Ejigu Alemayehu; Evangelista, Paul H; Atickem, Anagaw; Bekele, Afework; Bro-Jørgensen, Jakob; Stenseth, Nils Chr.
Afiliación
  • Worku EA; Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo Norway.
  • Evangelista PH; Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA.
  • Atickem A; Department of Zoological Sciences Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
  • Bekele A; Department of Zoological Sciences Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
  • Bro-Jørgensen J; Mammalian Behaviour and Evolution Group, Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour University of Liverpool Neston UK.
  • Stenseth NC; Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo Norway.
Ecol Evol ; 14(4): e11235, 2024 Apr.
Article en En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38623519
ABSTRACT
Habitat suitability models have become a valuable tool for wildlife conservation and management, and are frequently used to better understand the range and habitat requirements of rare and endangered species. In this study, we employed two habitat suitability modeling techniques, namely Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) and Maximum Entropy (Maxent) models, to identify potential suitable habitats for the endangered mountain nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni) and environmental factors affecting its distribution in the Arsi and Ahmar Mountains of Ethiopia. Presence points, used to develop our habitat suitability models, were recorded from fecal pellet counts (n = 130) encountered along 196 randomly established transects in 2015 and 2016. Predictor variables used in our models included major landcover types, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), greenness and wetness tasseled cap vegetation indices, elevation, and slope. Area Under the Curve model evaluations for BRT and Maxent were 0.96 and 0.95, respectively, demonstrating high performance. Both models were then ensembled into a single binary output highlighting an area of agreement. Our results suggest that 1864 km2 (9.1%) of the 20,567 km2 study area is suitable habitat for the mountain nyala with land cover types, elevation, NDVI, and slope of the terrain being the most important variables for both models. Our results highlight the extent to which habitat loss and fragmentation have disconnected mountain nyala subpopulations. Our models demonstrate the importance of further protecting suitable habitats for mountain nyala to ensure the species' conservation.
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Texto completo: 1 Colección: 01-internacional Base de datos: MEDLINE Idioma: En Revista: Ecol Evol Año: 2024 Tipo del documento: Article Pais de publicación: Reino Unido
Texto completo
Añadir a Mi BVS
Imprimir
XML
PubMed Links
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Texto completo: 1 Colección: 01-internacional Base de datos: MEDLINE Idioma: En Revista: Ecol Evol Año: 2024 Tipo del documento: Article Pais de publicación: Reino Unido