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Contrasting use of habitat, landscape elements, and corridors by grey wolf and golden jackal in central Iran

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Abstract

Context

Increasing carnivore–human conflict has threatened the survival of many carnivore species, thus evaluating habitat requirements, landscape connectivity and the protection of biological corridors is critical to guide conservation of carnivores.

Objectives

We evaluated the suitability of study landscape for grey wolf and golden jackal, assessed how well populations of each species are connected by movement corridors, and examined the feasibility of optimal multi-species conservation strategies based on intersection of habitat and connectivity areas of multiple species.

Methods

We modeled the distribution of the two canids in central Iran based on an ensemble approach. The distribution predictions were used to estimate landscape resistance. We then used species occurrence data and the resistance layers to identify core habitats and corridors using the resistant kernel and factorial least-cost path methods.

Results

Our results indicated high potential for large parts of the landscape to support the occurrence of the two canid species. However, the predicted connectivity networks were not very strong and extended. The strongest connections for both species were between western and eastern populations. Only a small shared linkage was detected for the two species with the highest numbers of LCPs.

Conclusions

Our results provided critical information for the conservation of grey wolf and golden jackal in Iran and identified the most critical core areas and corridors that link them. Carnivore conservation in Iran should focus on safeguarding these key strongholds and improving the permeability, habitat quality and reducing mortality risk in the corridor linking them.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Isfahan Department of Environment for providing occurrence data and to the gameguards for assisting us in collecting species occurrence records.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resources, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 8415683111, Iran

    Gilda Shahnaseri, Mahmoud-Reza Hemami & Shima Malakoutikhah

  2. Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Engineering, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, 71441-65186, Iran

    Rasoul Khosravi

  3. Isfahan Department of Environment, Isfahan, Iran

    Maryam Omidi

  4. Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    Samuel A. Cushman

Authors
  1. Gilda Shahnaseri
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  2. Mahmoud-Reza Hemami
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  3. Rasoul Khosravi
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  4. Shima Malakoutikhah
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  5. Maryam Omidi
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  6. Samuel A. Cushman
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Correspondence to Mahmoud-Reza Hemami.

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Shahnaseri, G., Hemami, MR., Khosravi, R. et al. Contrasting use of habitat, landscape elements, and corridors by grey wolf and golden jackal in central Iran. Landscape Ecol 34, 1263–1277 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-019-00831-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-019-00831-w

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