Application of Criteria of Landscape Ecology in Habitat Evaluation for Wild Sheep ( Ovis orientalis) in Kavir National Park

Subject Areas : environmental management

Mojtaba  Ghandali ¹ (- MSC of environmental science, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Iran)
Afshin  Alizade ² (Assitant Prof., Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Iran)
Mahmood  Karami ³ (- Professor., Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Iran)
Mohammad  Kaboli ⁴ (Assiatant Prof., Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Iran)
Hamid  Zohrabi ⁵ (MSC of Management and planning of environment. Iran Department of environment, semnan)

Received: 2014-03-03 Accepted : 2014-08-12 Published : 2014-12-22

Keywords: wild sheep, Kavir National Park, Habitat Patches, Habitat suitability model, logistic regression,

Abstract :

Aim and scope: The area, shape and configuration of habitat patches are crucial features in landscape ecology studies, and they are also important to habitat evaluation and habitat suitability.Wild sheep is from Bovidae Family found in Kavir national park. The most important feature of the habitat of wild sheep is proximity to escape terrain (as cover for avoiding of predators). Understanding habitat requirements in landscape level is essential for successful management and conservation of wild sheep. Materials: We used logistic regression approach to develop habitat suitability model for wild sheep in Kavir national park with Using landscape ecology metrics such as shape, size and proximity of habitat patches and based on field data gathered from autumn 2009 to summer 2010 . Results: Due to the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test statistic is greater than .05, So the model has adequate fit. Habitat suitability model indicated good discrimination based on the receiver-operation characteristic (ROC) criteria (ROC> 0.97), indicating habitat suitability model can explain distribution of wild sheep reasonably well. 

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