Ideal modeling of wild Sheep habitat in wildlife refuge of Burueiyeh in Yazd province by using Maximum Entropy Model (MaxEnt)

Wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) is of prominent mammals in hilly regions and in terms of conservation is among vulnerable class of the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In this study, the wildlife refuge of Boroueieh area located in south of Yazd province was investigated as one of habitats of wild sheep. In this regard, desirability modeling based on the presence data was conducted using the maximum entropy (MaxEnt). For modeling and managing wild sheep as the prominent species of hills and mountain ranges, firstly the factors influencing the distribution of the species should be identified and then the habitat desirability model should be designed to protect and manage these habitats in order to protect the target species. For modeling habitat desirability, presence points were dependent variable and environmental factors were considered as independent variable. The purpose of this research was to determine the suitable habitat for wild sheep using the presence points and environmental variables by maximum entropy model. The desirability map shows that variables such as 30-50 percent slope, rangeland and hill areas are the important determinants of the desirable habitat for wild sheep. Considering the amount of AUC (that is 0.939), the model has a very good predicting power and jacknife graph showed that the model has been successful in prediction of the presence points as desirable habitat. According to the results of modeling, 28.24% of the Boroueieh area is desirable habitat for wild sheep.