Evaluation of environmental Indexin habitat selection of cheetah (Acinonyxjubatusvenaticus; Griffith, 1821) using Time series data of remote sensing (Case study: Touran Management Region)

Touran Biosphere Reserve is located in the North east of Semnan Province and Iran which is the most important core area for critically endangered (Cr) Asiatic cheetah in the country. Identifying suitable habitats and mapping of species distribution area have an important role for appropriate conserving of the endangered species and designing management planning. In this study we applied Maxent software to model the distribution of suitable habitats, identification of the most important environmental, climate and geographical factors for the species in Touran BR which is the second largest habitat of the species in Iran. Cheetah presence data are from 2001 to 2015. Our results showed that 20 percent of Touran is suitable for cheetah and water resources and the perpendicular vegetation index have provided unique information. Moreover, cheetah suitable habitats are plains and hilly areas which have highly overlap with the distribution of the Jebeer Gazelle, Wild sheep and Goitered Gazelle. Moreover, according to the results, cheetah avoid mountainous habitats where is larger competitor, Persian leopard, territory.