Habitat fragmentation modeling for wild goat in southern parts of Markazi Province

Markazi province with high elevation mountains consist suitable habitats for wild goat as a representative of biodiversity in Markazi province. Wild goat habitats in this province is fragmented and degraded due to intensive industrial, agricultural and mining activities. Ecological niche factor analysis and landscape characteristics including patch shape, area and edge were studied to develop habitat suitability modeling and analyzing patch fragmentation. Results indicate that four ecological factors explain 93% of species habitat selection information. Marginality value of 1.603 and tolerance value of 0.299 indicate that wild goat preferred habitat with elevations and slopes higher than habitat's mean and had low tolerance to habitat variations. About 8% of southern parts of Markazi province encompass three suitable habitat patches for wild goat. Comparison of landscape characteristics of these three patches showed that HaftadGholleh- PalangDareh patch with an area of 63.25 %, edge density of 13.04 m and total perimeter of 761 kilometer is less disturbed by human made structures and more parts of it is under protection and therefore has more suitable condition than two other patches. In order to reduce the fragmentation of wild goat habitats in Markazi province, suitable patches should be developed and corridors should be designed.