10.6084/m9.figshare.6061289.v1
Rosa M. Chefaoui
Rosa M.
Chefaoui
Mahboubeh Sadat Hosseinzadeh
Mahboubeh Sadat
Hosseinzadeh
Meysam Mashayekhi
Meysam
Mashayekhi
Barbod Safaei-Mahroo
Barbod
Safaei-Mahroo
Seyed Mahdi Kazemi
Seyed Mahdi
Kazemi
Identifying suitable habitats and current conservation status of a rare and elusive reptile in Iran: Supplementary Material
Brill Online
2018
ecological niche modelling
endemic
Hierophis
Iranian Plateau
small sample size, snake
snake
Biogeography and Phylogeography
Ecology not elsewhere classified
Vertebrate Biology
2018-03-29 06:59:31
Journal contribution
https://brill.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Identifying_suitable_habitats_and_current_conservation_status_of_a_rare_and_elusive_reptile_in_Iran_Supplementary_Material/6061289
<p>Knowledge gaps regarding
species distribution and abundance are great in remote regions with political
instability, and they might be even larger concerning elusive and rare species.
We predict the potential distribution for <i>Hierophis andreanus,</i> a poorly
known endemic snake in the Iranian Plateau, and assess its conservation status
in relation to existing protected areas. We used a maximum entropy modeling
tool and Mahalanobis distance to produce an ensemble species distribution
model. The most suitable habitats where located mainly in mountain ranges and
adjacent areas of Iran and Afghanistan. Mean temperature and slope were the
most important predictors for our models. Furthermore, just five localities for
<i>H. andreanus</i> were inside the Iranian protected areas. A 10 km expansion
from existing boundaries of protected areas in all directions would double
protected localities to 10, and a 20 km buffer would result in 13 protected
localities. Our findings are particularly valuable to select locations to
conduct new surveys and produce a more reliable estimate of current population
size to improve conservation and management for this reptile in
the Irano-Anatolian region.</p>