Modeling habitat suitability for the lesser-known populations of endangered mountain nyala (<i>Tragelaphus buxtoni</i>) in the Arsi and Ahmar Mountains, Ethiopia.


Worku, Ejigu Alemayehu, Evangelista, Paul H, Atickem, Anagaw, Bekele, Afework, Bro-Jørgensen, Jakob and Stenseth, Nils Chr (2024) Modeling habitat suitability for the lesser-known populations of endangered mountain nyala (<i>Tragelaphus buxtoni</i>) in the Arsi and Ahmar Mountains, Ethiopia. Ecology and evolution, 14 (4). e11235-e11235.

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Abstract

Habitat suitability models have become a valuable tool for wildlife conservation and management, and are frequently used to better understand the range and habitat requirements of rare and endangered species. In this study, we employed two habitat suitability modeling techniques, namely Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) and Maximum Entropy (Maxent) models, to identify potential suitable habitats for the endangered mountain nyala (<i>Tragelaphus buxtoni</i>) and environmental factors affecting its distribution in the Arsi and Ahmar Mountains of Ethiopia. Presence points, used to develop our habitat suitability models, were recorded from fecal pellet counts (<i>n</i> = 130) encountered along 196 randomly established transects in 2015 and 2016. Predictor variables used in our models included major landcover types, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), greenness and wetness tasseled cap vegetation indices, elevation, and slope. Area Under the Curve model evaluations for BRT and Maxent were 0.96 and 0.95, respectively, demonstrating high performance. Both models were then ensembled into a single binary output highlighting an area of agreement. Our results suggest that 1864 km<sup>2</sup> (9.1%) of the 20,567 km<sup>2</sup> study area is suitable habitat for the mountain nyala with land cover types, elevation, NDVI, and slope of the terrain being the most important variables for both models. Our results highlight the extent to which habitat loss and fragmentation have disconnected mountain nyala subpopulations. Our models demonstrate the importance of further protecting suitable habitats for mountain nyala to ensure the species' conservation.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Boosted Regression Tree, Maxent, Tragelaphus buxtoni, habitat suitability modeling, mountain nyala
Divisions: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 29 Apr 2024 08:04
Last Modified: 29 Apr 2024 08:05
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11235
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3180598
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