سنجاب ایرانی

Today, with the entry of Persian squirrel species by humans into the foothills of Alborz mountain range, especially Qazvin and Alborz provinces, it has caused damage to the environment and local communities. The aim of this study was to provide a structural model of attitudes of gardeners damaged by the infestation of Persian Squirrels in Qazvin and Alborz provinces for efficient management and control of squirrel invasion in the region.

The present study is applied in terms of purpose and in terms of data collection, it is of survey type. In this study, a questionnaire was used in Alborz and Qazvin provinces. Validity of the questionnaire from three methods; Convergent validity, Factor Analysis and Divergent validity was used; And for the reliability of the questionnaire in two methods; Cronbach's alpha and sequential theta were used and the questionnaire was reviewed and validated; The statistical population of gardeners is damaged; Its size was estimated based on the Cochran's formula of 392 people. Then the structural equation model with partial least squares method was used to estimate the Unknown parameters of the model used.

Research findings showed, the degree of agreement with control strategies, Knowledge about squirrels and ethical considerations are the most important determinants of a reliable level 99% P≤0.01 Respectively with effect coefficients 0.330, 0.256, -0.258 has a Meaningful effect on attitudes damaged gardeners. our other findings showed that the damage factor as an independent external factor added to the model had the most significant effect on the 99% confidence level of P P≤0.01 on the attitude of ethical considerations, beliefs, squirrel control feasibility and agreement with control strategies; There is with effect coefficients -0.236, -0.172, -0.175, 0.244.

The results of the study indicate that increasing knowledge and awareness about the effects and harms of squirrel invasion in the region is the main factor in increasing public support for control management or eradication of invasive squirrels.

Persian squirrel recently in the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains of Iran, Especially the provinces of Qazvin and Alborz are seen abundantly; the influx of Persian squirrels has caused economic and ecological damage to the region and has become a major public concern. The present study was conducted to model the future distribution of squirrels in the region and to protect desirable areas where invading squirrels have not yet entered. In this study, in order to model the distribution of squirrel infestation in the region, MaxEnt software was used, which uses the maximum entropy model for modeling. Dependent variables included the presence points of the invading Persian squirrel species in the region and the independent variable includes 14 environmental variables consisting of habitat and climatic variables affecting the habitat suitability of Persian squirrel species. The results of the model show that the variables; land use (Regional garden floors, urban and agricultural areas), mean diurnal range (Bio 2) and vegetation (irrigated farming floors and orchards and tree canopy) are the most important variables affecting the habitat suitability of squirrel species. The model output results showed, Regional gardens, urban areas, agriculture and ecologically sensitive areas such as conservation areas (Central Alborz, Bashgol, Alamut, and Taleghan no-hunting area that the invading squirrel has not attacked it is a habitat suitability for this invasive species and has been exposed to the future invasion of this species. Therefore, there is a need for preventive measures to prevent irreparable economic and ecological damage to native species.

Protecting the environment requires sufficient knowledge about ecosystem components and their interactions. Persian squirrel is one of the most important mammals in the Zagros forests. This species is dependent on forest habitats. The conservation status of this species has not been investigated, and the IUCN has classified it under the least concern class. This native species faces threats such as widespread destruction of Zagros forest due to climate change, pests and diseases, construction projects, grazing, land use change and so forth. Totally, there is little information about the evolutionary history, geographic range, ecological aspects, distribution and biological conditions of the Persian squirrels. The effects of destruction of Zagros forests on this species are not clear. The most important threats to this species are deforestation, hunting and agriculture. Unfortunately, in recent years, this valuable animal has become a pet in Iran, encouraging illegal catch and sell of the species. We expect the species will become threatened in near future. In this study, based on the review available literature about the Persian squirrel, the existing challenges and prospects of protecting the Persian squirrels have been discussed.

The threats and human conflicts in the Dena protected area, the existence of many villages, the destruction of oak forests and the expansion of agricultural lands have limited the habitat of Iraniansquirrel species in this area. Habitat assessment models predict the distribution of species and their habitats, and therefore can be used as a suitable tool for conservation and management purposes.With the aim of modeling Iranian squirrel habitat in the spring and summer of the year, the ecological Nich factor analysis (ENFA) method has been used in the Biomapper software environment. In this study, the presence of species as dependent variable and eight environmental variables were used as independent variables. These layers were prepared and analyzed. The desirability map of thehabitat for Iranian squirrel species indicates that the desirable habitat in the west and southwest of the Dena Mountain and in areas with oak forest cover with a low density with a slope of less than 14% in the spring and 11% in summer Is. Based on the amount of specialization, the most important factor affecting the ecological niches of the species studied in the spring and summer is the environmental checkpoint, gradient, vegetation index and distance from the road.Oak seed plays a major role in the range of domestic squirrels in Iran, In the spring, due to ashortage of food, especially oak seed, it is higher than in summer.

According to IUCN estimates, about 30% of the extinction of species until 1980 was due to habitat destruction. Climate change has been recognized as the most important factors of habitat destruction in recent years. Forest are one of the most sensitive ecosystems to climate change, hence forest species such as squirrels are very vulnerable to climate change. Predicting the effects of climate change on species habitats can assist in species conservation planning. Habitat modelling is one of the most widely used methods to study the effects of climate change on species and their habitats in the near and far future and the maximum entropy model is one of the most efficient models in this field. For this purpose, in this study the maximum entropy model was used to identify suitable habitats for Persian squirrel in Lorestan province’s forests both in the present time and in the future depend on the CCSM4 climatic model by 2050. The AUC of 0.92 represents the satisfactory performance of this model in this study. Results indicated that about 57% of forests in Lorestan province are suitable for Persian squirrel, of which 17.78% has high suitability, 25.59% moderate suitability and 13.63% low suitability. In addition, the results indicated suitable forested areas for Persian squirrel will decrease from 57% to 22.58% by 2050 based on CCSM4 climatic model, of which 5.36 will have high suitability, 8.2% moderate suitability and 8.99% low suitability.

The 40 percent of the country's forests are allocated to Zagros area with five million hectare forest. Indiscriminate use of Zagros forests during last decades, has led to convert this valuable forests to sensitive and fragile ecosystems. Iranian Squirrel is an indicator mammal of the Zagros oak forests that unfortunately greatly reduced due to the destruction of habitat as a result of human activities. The aim of this study was to select the suitable remaining patches for conservation of this species. We used species distribution modeling Geographic Information System (GIS) to develop habitat suitability model for Iranian Squirrel in Zagros forests. The results showed that the major suitable patches for this species are located in the West of the city. As well as elevation, distance from roads and vegetation cover variables are most important variables for distribution of this species. The results of this study suggest that forest areas with dense cover and upland forest areas were most favorable habitat for Iranian squirrel species in the Salas-e Babajani County.