Habitat modeling of the common pheasant Phasianus colchicus (Galliformes: Phasianidae) in a highly modified landscape: application of species distribution models in the study of a poorly documented bird in Iran

Abstract

The common pheasant is listed as a nationally protected species in Iran because it faces many threats such as habitat destruction, pollution from pesticides and overhunting. The species' habitat selection remains unknown in Iran; consequently, conservation planning for the species is hampered by this lack of information. In this study we used predictor variables including topographic, anthropogenic, land cover and climate and 122 occurrence points to model the distribution of common pheasant (subspecies P. c. talischensis), in Gilan province, Iran. The results showed that distance to agriculture and orchards as well as distance to plantation forests were the most important variables in predicting species distribution. Furthermore, we found that the total potential suitable habitat for the species in Gilan province is 315,990 hectares. We observed a shift of the species to higher altitudes in the province. We recommend raising awareness about the presence of the species especially among private landowners, creating a network of protected areas on private land, and changing land-use policies at the provincial level as essential measures for the conservation of the species in Gilan province. Our results can be applied to management and conservation of the species in other modified or rapidly changing landscapes.

Applying opportunistic observations to model current and future suitability of the Kopet Dagh Mountains for a Near Threatened avian scavenger

“…MaxEnt (Maximum Entropy Modeling) is one of the best methods among many algorithms for modeling species distribution patterns 39–41 and was successfully applied in modeling avian distribution. 42–44 This method only needs presence data from the species and is very effective even when distribution data is scarce. 45 MaxEnt was run with maximum iterations of 1000, convergence threshold of 0.0001 and 1000 background points.…”

Environmental predictors for the distribution of the Caspian green lizard, Lacerta strigata Eichwald, 1831, along elevational gradients of the Elburz Mountains in northern Iran

“…The study of species distributions along elevational gradients from lowlands to mountains can offer valuable insights into the environmental factors that determine the distribution of species (Hairston, 1949;Guisan and Hofer, 2003;Arntzen, 2006). The Elburz Mountains are a biodiversity hotspot in Iran (Anderson, 1999;Majnoonian et al, 2005;Akhani et al, 2013;Moradi et al, 2018). While plant species and the environmental drivers of their distributions have been studied extensively in the Elburz Mountains (Noroozi et al, 2010;Akhani et al, 2013;Ravanbakhsh and Moshki, 2016), animal distributions and their drivers remain poorly known (Ahmadzadeh et al, 2013;Mahmoudi et al, 2016;Ashoori et al, 2018).…”

Assessing the origin, genetic structure and demographic history of the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) in the introduced European range

“…Although the common pheasant is widespread and relatively common over most of its range, local and regional populations are facing declines mainly due to over-hunting and habitat loss 26 . For example, P. c. talischensis , from Azerbaijan and northwest Iran bordering the southwest of the Caspian Sea, is now a very rare subspecies 27 comprising a total population of 200–300 individuals 28 .…”