Identification of the key habitats for the conservation of Brown bear (Ursus arctos) in the northern slopes of Alborz

Brown bear has the highest distribution within all bear species and lives in Asia, North America and Europe. It is the biggest carnivore with wide distribution and aboundance in Iran, especially in mountainous area. The largest population of the species are inhabiting along the Alborz Mountains with the highest abundance in the Central Alborz Protected Area and the Golestan National Park in Mazandaran and Golestan provinces, respectively. To increase our knowledge instead of improve the conservation level of the species remained populations in protected areas and in order to be able to predict the effective factors on habitat suitability, we had a survey on this issue in Golestan, Guilan and Mazandaran Hyrcanian forests with the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) software. The results show that 59% of the study area is suitable for Brown bears. Moreover, Brown bears prefer the areas with high vegetation and high slope in northern aspect. According to the results, increase of annual temperature will reduce the suitability of habitats. Also, along with determining new protected areas, it should have an appropriate distance from human settlements and villages.