Comparison of Habitat Suitability Model for the Wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) using ENFA and MAXENT methods in Markazi province, Iran

Markazi province with its elevated mountains is a suitable habitat for the wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) such that Significant populations of wild sheep can be seen in the central province of habitats. The MAXENT method is based on the maximum or close to reality entropy while the ENFA method is built on the normal distribution. The map and Habitat Suitability Model for the wild sheep were developed and compared using the factor analysis of ecological niche and maximum entropy. Based on the results of the ENFA and MAXENT methods, 118801 ha (8%) ,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 and 169878 ha (11%) of the southern half of Markazi province, Iran, are suitable habitats for the wild sheep, respectively. Among the development variables, the highest impact on the wild sheep ecology is assigned to distance to cities variable (20 km) while the lowest impact is related to distance from unpaved road variable. And among the ecologic variables, the highest impact is determined for slop variable (20%) and the lowest impact is related to height variable.The comparison of the models’ ROC indicates that the validity of the Habitat Suitability Model is 0.978 and 0.951 respectively using the MAXENT and ENFA methods indicating the better performance of the MAXENT model than the ENFA model. Hence, the use of MAXENT method in the modeling of wildlife habitat suitability is recommended.