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An assessment of endangered species habitat at large scale: chiru distribution across the Tibetan region of Chang Tang
- Source :
- Folia Zoologica. 65:65-71
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2016.
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Abstract
- Habitat degradation is a major threat to the survival of chiru (Pantholops hodgsonii). Detailed knowledge for habitat conservation in this steppe-dwelling ungulate is needed if effective conservation and management strategies are to be developed. The distribution of potential habitat and the relative value of habitat to chiru on a regional scale remains unknown, hindering landscape conservation planning. Our aim was to identify and rank chiru habitat across the Chang Tang region of the Tibetan Plateau. We assessed overall habitat suitability using geographical data, field surveys, and information contained within previous studies. We identified 10194 km2 of optimal habitat (1.71 % of the region), 256816 km2 of suitable habitat (43.17 % of the region), and 213799 km2 of marginal habitat (35.94 % of the region). Our habitat model shows that suitable habitat is located primarily in the central (Nyingma county and Shuanghu county) and western (Geze county) regions of the study area. When we looked specifically at a chiru reserve (Chang Tang Nature Reserve) located within the study area, we found that over half of the reserve could be classified as suitable habitat. This highlights the regional importance of this reserve to chiru conservation. Our findings further indicate that the protection of suitable habitat and improvement of habitat linkages will be important features of any regional chiru conservation plan.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Nature reserve
biology
Ecology
Species distribution
Conservation Plan
Endangered species
Habitat conservation
biology.organism_classification
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
010601 ecology
Habitat destruction
Geography
Habitat
Pantholops hodgsonii
Animal Science and Zoology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 01397893
- Volume :
- 65
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Folia Zoologica
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........bd93e480696fbde50a0fab57815590ce