Evaluation of Hyaena hyaena habitat suitability using Maximum Entropy Method (Study Area: Bagh Shadi Protected Area in Yazd province)

Since determining the suitability of wildlife habitats have a great importance in wildlife conservation and management programs and considering the importance of the role of hyena specie in nature Cleaning (eating dead animals) and to prevent the spread of pollution and disease, the aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability of hyena habitat in Yazd province, Bagh-e Shadi natural protected area, using maximum entropy algorithm. According to studies, variables such as altitude, slope, direction, distance from water sources, vegetation communities, distance from village, geography, soil, and hypsometry were identified as effective environmental factors in determining habitat suitability of species. Then Maxnet software was used to evaluate the habitat suitability of the hyena species with the species presence points. According to done the modeling and based on the obtained, results, according to the Jackknife test, Area under the curve for vegetation variable was higher than the other variables and It was identified as the most important variable affecting the suitability of hyena habitat. According to the table the relative contribution The obtained variables from the model, the water resource variable had the highest relative share (84.4%) and permutation importance (61.6%) and it was identified as the most important non-living parameter affecting species distribution and prediction mapping. Also the area under curve (AUC) results for the training data (0.870) showed the efficiency and predictive power of the model for the distribution of hyena species is in the highest level. Therefore, the results of this study, in addition to predicting the spatial distribution of hyena and finding new favorable areas of presence, can contribute to the management measures of conservation of this species.