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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
general
Predicting the distribution pattern of small carnivores in response to environmental factors in the Western Ghats
PLoS ONE, Volume 8, No. 11, Article e79295, Year 2013
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Description
Due to their secretive habits, predicting the pattern of spatial distribution of small carnivores has been typically challenging, yet for conservation management it is essential to understand the association between this group of animals and environmental factors. We applied maximum entropy modeling (MaxEnt) to build distribution models and identify environmental predictors including bioclimatic variables, forest and land cover type, topography, vegetation index and anthropogenic variables for six small carnivore species in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. Species occurrence records were collated from camera-traps and vehicle transects during the years 2010 and 2011. We used the average training gain from forty model runs for each species to select the best set of predictors. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic plot (ROC) ranged from 0.81 to 0.93 for the training data and 0.72 to 0.87 for the test data. In habitat models for F. chaus , P. hermaphroditus, and H. smithii "distance to village" and precipitation of the warmest quarter emerged as some of the most important variables. "Distance to village" and aspect were important for V. indica while "distance to village" and precipitation of the coldest quarter were significant for H. vitticollis. "Distance to village", precipitation of the warmest quarter and land cover were influential variables in the distribution of H. edwardsii. The map of predicted probabilities of occurrence showed potentially suitable habitats accounting for 46 km2 of the reserve for F. chaus, 62 km2 for V. indica, 30 km2 for P. hermaphroditus, 63 km2 for H. vitticollis, 45 km2 for H. smithii and 28 km2 for H. edwardsii. Habitat heterogeneity driven by the east-west climatic gradient was correlated with the spatial distribution of small carnivores. This study exemplifies the usefulness of modeling small carnivore distribution to prioritize and direct conservation planning for habitat specialists in southern India. © 2013 Kalle et al.
Authors & Co-Authors
Kalle, Riddhika
India, Dehradun
Wildlife Institute of
Ramesh, Tharmalingam
India, Dehradun
Wildlife Institute of
Qureshi, Qamar
India, Dehradun
Wildlife Institute of
Sankar, Kalyanasundaram
India, Dehradun
Wildlife Institute of
Statistics
Citations: 53
Authors: 4
Affiliations: 1
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0079295
ISSN:
19326203
Research Areas
Environmental
Genetics And Genomics