animal biosystematic
azita farashi
Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 19 October 2014
Abstract
Carnivores play great ecological roles in ecosystems because of placing on top of the food pyramid. Food habits of large carnivores are associated with important ecological features such as spatial pattern, movement, habitat selection, social structure, geographical distribution and reproductive success. ...
Read More
Carnivores play great ecological roles in ecosystems because of placing on top of the food pyramid. Food habits of large carnivores are associated with important ecological features such as spatial pattern, movement, habitat selection, social structure, geographical distribution and reproductive success. Accordingly, in this study was used scat analysis to determine the diet of persian leopards in Sarigol National Park using percent of occurrence index. The results showed that diet of leopards in the Sarigol National Park includes a high diversity of wild boar (Sus scrofa), wild goat (Capra aegagrus), wild sheep (Ovis orientalis), tolai hare (Lepus tolai), common fox (Vulpes vulpes), Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica), domesticated animals; dog, horse, bird and plant materials. Wild sheeps have the largest share and rabbits and horses have the lowest share in the diet of this species. Undoubtedly, identifying food habits of leopard and maintaining prey populations can improve management programs and conservation status.Keywords: Food pyramid, Scat, Food habits
azita farashi; Seyedeh bahareh hosseini; Fatemeh jahanishakib
Abstract
The Iranian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor, Pocock 1927) is one of the endangered species. For this reason, it is necessary to evaluate and protect the habitat of this species as a flag species that is placed at the top of the food pyramid. In this paper, the InVEST software is utilized to investigate ...
Read More
The Iranian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor, Pocock 1927) is one of the endangered species. For this reason, it is necessary to evaluate and protect the habitat of this species as a flag species that is placed at the top of the food pyramid. In this paper, the InVEST software is utilized to investigate the habitat quality of the Iranian leopard in Kopet Dag region in the northeast of Iran Then, 30 habitat variables are prepared using ArcGIS 10.3 software including climatic variables, topography, Landuse/Landcover, and leopard prey distribution. Then, InVEST software and Habitat Quality model are employed in Kopet Dag region to survey the habitat quality of the studied species. The input data of the InVEST software encompasses the current land use map, threat list tables, and habitat sensitivity. By employing the output of MaxEnt results, the information on the threat and habitat sensitivity tables are prepared and entered into the model. Ultimately, after running the model, the results indicate that 81.22% of the desirable habitats and 18.77% of the undesirable habitats overlap with Kopet Dag region. Moreover, the cities of Mashhad, Khaf, Neishabur, and Sabzevar, have the most desirable habitat respectively for the studied species. the results indicate that the most amount of destruction is in the west of Mashhad city and then in the center of Golbahar and Qochan citie.
Amir Ebrahimi; Azita Farashi; Alireza Rashki
Abstract
Persian Leopard is the most prominent mammals in Iran, where most of its distribution is known to be in this country. Dispersion of this species depends on anthropological and climatical factors. Studying its habitat as a keystone species is really important because it has effects on the functions of ...
Read More
Persian Leopard is the most prominent mammals in Iran, where most of its distribution is known to be in this country. Dispersion of this species depends on anthropological and climatical factors. Studying its habitat as a keystone species is really important because it has effects on the functions of the ecosystem. With this all said, conservation measures are crucial for this species. Based on the previous studies, despite the wide range of Iranian leopard diet, factors such as land use change has reduced its prey in many areas. Nowadays new habitat modelling methods play an important role in wildlife management and conservation. One of these methods is the MaxEnt approach. In this study, using this method and using variables of land cover, topographic, climatic and human-made, modeling to predict suitable habitats of Persian Leopard, Wild Goat, Urial Wild Sheep and Armenian Wild Sheep were performed as their favorite preys. Based on the model evaluation results by using Jackknife index and response curves showed that Persian Leopard, Wild Goat, Urial Wild Sheep and Armenian Wild Sheep have shown significant responses to the distance of protected areas. It also showed that taking distance from protected areas to reduce habitat suitabilities for the studied species. Also, Persian leopard habitats have significant overlaps with its 3 favourite prey. This shows the importance of wild goats, Urial and Armenian wild sheep in Persian leopard habitats.
azita farashi; Mohammad Sarbaz; Ali Khani
Volume 7, Issue 1 , September 2018, , Pages 35-44
Abstract
Abstract Khorasan Razavi province, including important habitats for marbled polecat (Vormela peregusna) in Iran. in this study, we used maximum entropy method (Maxent) for habitat modeling in the province. This method is an effective approach for habitat modelling with presence points. In this study, ...
Read More
Abstract Khorasan Razavi province, including important habitats for marbled polecat (Vormela peregusna) in Iran. in this study, we used maximum entropy method (Maxent) for habitat modeling in the province. This method is an effective approach for habitat modelling with presence points. In this study, 25 points were used and 89 percent accuracy was achieved. Based on the results, the northern and northwestern regions of the province are more suitable for the species. According to the study, 6% of the whole province is suitable for the species. The results also showed that the suitable habitats areas overlap with roads and in addition to roads with human settlements such as towns and villages also showed a positive relation and in according to the responses curves, with increasing of distance of the areas, decreasing habitat suitability. And also, forest areas and rivers have a positive effect on habitat suitability. According most environmental degradation is about habitats, so we must try to survey and management these areas appropriately.
Mohamd Taghdisi; M Kaboli2; A ّFarashi
Volume 2, Issue 1 , March 2014, , Pages 57-63
Abstract
Carnivores play great ecological roles in ecosystems because of placing on top of the food pyramid. Food habits of large carnivores are associated with important ecological features such as spatial pattern, movement, habitat selection, social structure, geographical distribution and reproductive success. ...
Read More
Carnivores play great ecological roles in ecosystems because of placing on top of the food pyramid. Food habits of large carnivores are associated with important ecological features such as spatial pattern, movement, habitat selection, social structure, geographical distribution and reproductive success. Accordingly, in this study was used scat analysis to determine the diet of persian leopards in Sarigol National Park using percent of occurrence index. The results showed that diet of leopards in the Sarigol National Park includes a high diversity of wild boar (Sus scrofa), wild goat (Capra aegagrus), wild sheep (Ovis orientalis), tolai hare (Lepus tolai), common fox (Vulpes vulpes), Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica), domesticated animals; dog, horse, bird and plant materials. Wild sheeps have the largest share and rabbits and horses have the lowest share in the diet of this species. Undoubtedly, identifying food habits of leopard and maintaining prey populations can improve management programs and conservation status.
