Spring and summer habitat suitability modeling of wild boar (Sus scrofa) in Jassb wildlife refuge of Arak using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) method

Correct understanding of the relationship between the distribution of animals and their habitat can play an important role in the conservation and management of threatened species. Populations of wild boar (Sus scrofa) have increased significantly during recent decades throughout Iran. So that, its vast activity range in different habitats has increased its conflicts to human communities. Therefore, knowledge of the biological requirements of wild boar (Sus scrofa) is so important in species and habitats management planning. Habitat suitability of species such as wild boar deals with investigation of factors influencing on habitat suitability and also suitability reduction of some areas in order to control their devastating effects. The aim of present study is to model suitability of habitat in spring and summer seasons in Jassb wildlife refuge, as an important tool for identifying the distribution way of wild boar. In this study, habitat suitability map is prepared based on 10 environmental variables data and using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) method. The results of the model was assessed using the area under curve (AUC) and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) statistics and relative importance of variables was determined using Jackknife test. The results showed that the model was successful in prediction of suitable areas for species habitat (AUC = 0.77). Based on results of sensitivity analysis, DEM (Digital elevation model), slope and distance to rural region had the most impact on selection of species suitable habitat. Studies showed that, wild boar has more tendency to areas with (Perennual grasses, Artemisia aucheri, Astragalus spp) vegetation type and flat areas with very low slop (0 to 7 percent). Habitate suitability has inverse correlation to height increase and reduction of distance to rural area.