Contrasting use of habitat, landscape elements, and corridors by grey wolf and golden jackal in central Iran

Shahnaseri, Gilda; Hemami, Mahmoud‐Reza; Khosravi, R.; Malakoutikhah, Shima; Omidi, Mohammad; Cushman, Samuel A.

doi:10.1007/s10980-019-00831-w

Cited by 37 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Even though the golden jackal was described as a species highly capable of exploiting anthropogenic resources and agricultural landscapes (Raichev et al 2013;Ćirović et al 2016;Shahnaseri et al 2019), our data showed that the key factor positively affecting species occurrence were natural habitats. Dense broadleaved vegetation, in particular, emerged as an important habitat, providing adequate resources, such as prey and den sites, as well as an adequate cover offering shelter from human persecution (Giannatos 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

First assessment of habitat suitability and connectivity for the golden jackal in north-eastern Italy

et al. 2020

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Compared with the rapid expansion across Europe, the golden jackal colonization of Italy is still limited and slow. No study focused on the habitat selection or landscape connectivity for this species was performed in Italy; thus, the potential distribution and dispersal patterns in the country remain unknown. Our objectives were to evaluate the suitability of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region (north-eastern Italy) for the golden jackal, as well as to identify the ecological corridors connecting the areas currently occupied by the species. Corridors modelling allowed us both to hypothesize the dispersal dynamics occurring in the study region and to identify possible obstacles to future range expansion. We surveyed golden jackal presence in two study areas, covering an area of 500 km2, from March 2017 to February 2018. Using collected data, we modelled the species home-range scale habitat suitability based on an ensemble modelling approach. Subsequently, a habitat suitability prediction at a finer scale was used to estimate landscape resistance, starting from which, we modelled dispersal corridors among areas currently occupied by the species using a factorial least cost path and a cumulative resistant kernel approach. Our results indicated a moderate potential for large parts of the study region to support the occurrence of golden jackal family groups, whose presence seems to be mainly driven by the presence of wide areas covered by broadleaved forests and shrublands and by the absence of wide intensive agricultural areas. The predicted connectivity networks showed that three main permeable corridors are likely to connect golden jackal occurrence areas within the study region, while all the other corridors are characterized by a very low path density. Both the habitat selection and connectivity analyses showed a strong negative impact of the intensive cultivated plain on species stable presence and movement providing critical information for the conservation of the golden jackal in Italy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

First assessment of habitat suitability and connectivity for the golden jackal in north-eastern Italy

et al. 2020

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“…50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 km) in Conefor 2.6 85 . The dPC and dIIC indices are frequently used as connectivity measures in conservation prioritization studies 42,43,86,87 . The dIIC index considers both habitat amount and habitat reachability across the habitat network, and linkages as dispersal events between patches 84,86 .…”

Section: Connectivity Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A variety of methods have been used to assess landscape connectivity, including least-cost path modeling 35 , current flow 36 , factorial least-cost path density 37 , resistant kernels 38 and randomized shortest path algorithms 39 . The factorial least-cost path and cumulative resistant kernel approaches have been used in combination and the complementary information they provide have produced useful conservation tools 9 , 15 , 16 , 18 , 34 , 40 – 43 . In particular factorial least cost path and resistant kernel analysis incorporates scale dependence of dispersal ability, which is critical to produce accurate estimates of synoptic connectivity 40 , 44 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying priority core habitats and corridors for effective conservation of brown bears in Iran

Mohammadi

Almasieh²,

Nayeri

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Iran lies at the southernmost range limit of brown bears globally. Therefore, understanding the habitat associations and patterns of population connectivity for brown bears in Iran is relevant for the species’ conservation. We applied species distribution modeling to predict habitat suitability and connectivity modeling to identify population core areas and corridors. Our results showed that forest density, topographical roughness, NDVI and human footprint were the most influential variables in predicting brown bear distribution. The most crucial core areas and corridor networks for brown bear are concentrated in the Alborz and Zagros Mountains. These two core areas were predicted to be fragmented into a total of fifteen isolated patches if dispersal of brown bear across the landscape is limited to 50,000 cost units, and aggregates into two isolated habitat patches if the species is capable of dispersing 400,000 cost units. We found low overlap between corridors, and core habitats with protected areas, suggesting that the existing protected area network may not be adequate for the conservation of brown bear in Iran. Our results suggest that effective conservation of brown bears in Iran requires protection of both core habitats and the corridors between them, especially outside Iran’s network of protected areas.

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“…Connectivity modeling was developed adopting a factorial leastcost path [25] and a cumulative resistant kernel approach. Factorial least-cost path analysis was used to overcome the limitation of the least-cost path approach associated with the number of sources and target points and to produce a synoptic measure of landscape connectivity [5,26]. The resistant kernel approach shows the suitability of the whole landscape in supporting the movement of individuals [52].…”

Section: Modeling Connectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite their ecological importance, most large carnivores suffered major declines in both population size and geographic range over the twentieth century [2]. The major causes of these declines were the loss and fragmentation of habitats, the decline of prey populations and the direct persecution by humans [3,4,5]. Nevertheless, in the last decades, a large-scale recovery of carnivore populations has occurred even within some of the most anthropized areas of the world, such as in Europe [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining ensemble models and connectivity analyses to predict wolf expected dispersal routes through a lowland corridor

et al. 2020

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The Italian wolf (Canis lupus italicus) population has remained isolated South of the Alps for the last few thousand years. After a strong decline, the species has recolonized the Apennines and the Western Alps, while it is currently struggling to colonize the Eastern Alps. Recently, the species was detected in a lowland park connecting the Northern Apennines to the Central Alps. If the park was able to sustain a net wolf dispersal flow, this could significantly boost the connection with the Eastern Alps and the Dinaric-Balkan population. We investigated the suitability of the park as a functional ecological corridor for the wolf through the unhospitable lowland of Northern Italy. We collected wolf occurrence data in two study areas. We modeled species distribution running a separate ensemble model for each study area and then merging the output of the models to obtain an integrated suitability map. We used this map to identify corridors for the wolf adopting a factorial least-cost path and a cumulative resistant kernel approach. The connectivity models showed that only two corridors exist in the lowland areas between the Northern Apennines and the Central Alps. The Western corridor is a blind route, while the eastern corridor passes through the park and has a continuous course. However, the models also revealed a scarce resilience of corridor connectivity in the passageways between the park and the Apennines and the Prealps, which suggests that urgent management actions are necessary to ensure the future functionality of this important corridor.

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Contrasting use of habitat, landscape elements, and corridors by grey wolf and golden jackal in central Iran

Cited by 37 publications

References 46 publications

First assessment of habitat suitability and connectivity for the golden jackal in north-eastern Italy

First assessment of habitat suitability and connectivity for the golden jackal in north-eastern Italy

Identifying priority core habitats and corridors for effective conservation of brown bears in Iran

Combining ensemble models and connectivity analyses to predict wolf expected dispersal routes through a lowland corridor

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