Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Nov 18;39(6):373-386.
doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2018.057. Epub 2018 May 24.

Assessment of habitat suitability of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) in Qomolangma National Nature Reserve based on MaxEnt modeling

De-Feng Bai  1   2 , Peng-Ju Chen  1 , Luciano Atzeni  1 , Lhaba Cering  3 , Qian Li  2 , Kun Shi  1   4
Affiliations

Assessment of habitat suitability of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) in Qomolangma National Nature Reserve based on MaxEnt modeling

De-Feng Bai et al. Zool Res. .

Abstract

Habitat evaluation constitutes an important and fundamental step in the management of wildlife populations and conservation policy planning. Geographic information system (GIS) and species presence data provide the means by which such evaluation can be done. Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) is widely used in habitat suitability modeling due to its power of accuracy and additional descriptive properties. To survey snow leopard populations in Qomolangma (Mt. Everest, QNNR) National Nature Reserve, Tibet, China, we pooled 127 pugmarks, 415 scrape marks, and 127 non-invasive identifications of the animal along line transects and recorded 87 occurrences through camera traps from 2014-2017. We adopted the MaxEnt model to generate a map highlighting the extent of suitable snow leopard habitat in QNNR. Results showed that the accuracy of the MaxEnt model was excellent (mean AUC=0.921). Precipitation in the driest quarter, ruggedness, elevation, maximum temperature of the warmest month, and annual mean temperature were the main environmental factors influencing habitat suitability for snow leopards, with contribution rates of 20.0%, 14.4%, 13.3%, 8.7%, and 8.2% respectively. The suitable habitat area extended for 7001.93 km2, representing 22.72% of the whole reserve. The regions bordering Nepal were the main suitable snow leopard habitats and consisted of three separate habitat patches. Our findings revealed that precipitation, temperature conditions, ruggedness, and elevations of around 4000 m influenced snow leopard preferences at the landscape level in QNNR. We advocate further research and cooperation with Nepal to evaluate habitat connectivity and to explore possible proxies of population isolation among these patches. Furthermore, evaluation of subdivisions within the protection zones of QNNR is necessary to improve conservation strategies and enhance protection.

Keywords: Habitat suitability assessment; MaxEnt; Qomolangma National Nature Reserve; Snow leopard; Tibet.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of camera traps for snow leopard surveys in Qomolangma National Nature Reserve, Xizang (Tibet)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Snow leopard presence data collected in QNNR
Figure 3
Figure 3
ROC verification of distribution of suitable snow leopard habitat in QNNR
Figure 4
Figure 4
Jackknife test of environmental variables in training data by MaxEnt
Figure 5
Figure 5
Response curve of selected variables for snow leopard habitat suitability in QNNR
Figure 6
Figure 6
Distribution of suitable snow leopard habitat in QNNR
Figure 7
Figure 7
Distribution of suitable snow leopard habitat in different functional zones in QNNR
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Alexander J.S., Gopalaswamy A.M., Shi K., Riordan P. Face value: towards robust estimates of snow leopard densities. PLoS One. 2015;10(8):e0134815. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134815. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alexander J.S., Gopalaswamy A.M., Shi K., Hughes J., Riordan P. Patterns of snow leopard site use in an increasingly human-dominated landscape. PLoS One. 2016b;11(5):e0155309. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155309. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alexander J.S., Shi K., Tallents L.A., Riordan P. On the high trail: examining determinants of site use by the endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia in Qilianshan, China. Oryx. 2016a;50(2):231–238. doi: 10.1017/S0030605315001027. - DOI
    1. Aryal A., Brunton D., Raubenheimer D. Habitat assessment for the translocation of blue sheep to maintain a viable snow leopard population in the Mt Everest Region, Nepal. Zoology and Ecology. 2013;23(1):66–82. doi: 10.1080/21658005.2013.765634. - DOI
    1. Aryal A., Brunton D., Ji W.H., Raubenheimer D. Blue sheep in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal: habitat use, population biomass and their contribution to the carrying capacity of snow leopards. Integrative Zoology. 2014a;9(1):34–45. doi: 10.1111/1749-4877.12004. - DOI - PubMed