Identify the habitat corridors of wild sheep (Ovis Orientalis) in the context of the landscape based on the theory of electrical circuits (Case Study: Lashgardar and Golparabad protected areas)

Due to the migration of species in the certain seasons, the protected areas are not able to cover all required areas for the species. So, it is necessary that in the wildlife, the corridors between the protected areas be taken under control and protection. In order to study habitat corridors between the wild sheep of Golparabad region and Ahangaran (Lashgardar) and Lashgardar section of Lashgardar protected area, at first the habitat suitability of mentioned specie by GLM, ANN and SVM Was modeled and then based on 10% threshold, the species habitat suitability maps were converted to the binary map. The validation of models was also performed based on the statistical approach ROC, the maximum kappa index, and TPR index. Results show the suitability of the GLM compared to other two models. Sensitivity analysis of GLM was calculated using kappa maximum method. In order to identify the communication corridors between two existing habitat patches, the reverse habitat suitability map was used as the Friction map and identification of existing corridors was performed by using the electrical circuit theory. The obtained results of the sensitivity analysis of GLM showed that the variables of elevation, land cover classes, distance from the river and distance from the village had the greatest impact on the species distribution. According to the findings, the best range for connecting the habitat patches is within 1.5 kilometers of the Eznaveleh village to Jozan in the limited area with the length of 800 meters.