animal biosystematic
Faramarz Esfandiari; Vida Hojati
Abstract
The protected area of Talo and Shirband, which was one of the prohibited hunting areas of Semnan province until 2019, is located in the northeast of Damghan city. This region has rich and varied biodiversity, cold and dry weather in winter, and hot and dry in summer. Since there is a wide variety of ...
Read More
The protected area of Talo and Shirband, which was one of the prohibited hunting areas of Semnan province until 2019, is located in the northeast of Damghan city. This region has rich and varied biodiversity, cold and dry weather in winter, and hot and dry in summer. Since there is a wide variety of reptiles in the mentioned area, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the fauna of lizards and turtles in the protected area of Talo and Shirband. The samples were collected from April to the end of September 2016 from early morning to late night in different stations of the region. The samples were identified based on valid identification keys and subjected to morphometric and meristic analysis. Pictures, identification key and species distribution map of the region were prepared. In total, 87 lizard samples and 6 turtle samples were collected and 15 species from 12 genera and belonging to 6 families were identified, which were: Paralaudakia caucasia, Phrynocephalus maculatus, Phrynocephalus scutellatus, Trapelus agilis, Bunopus tuberculatus, Cyrtopodion scabrum, Mediodactylus spinicaud, Tenuidactylus caspius, Eremias fasciata, Eremias persica, Eremias velox, Mesalina watsonana, Ablepharus pannonicus, Teratoscincus bedriagai and Testudo horsfieldii. The highest frequency of lizards belongs to Tenuidactylus caspius species and the lowest frequency belongs to Mesalina watsonana species
Jalil Sarhangzadeh; Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari
Abstract
Wild goat (Capra aegagrus) as the most vulnerable species is one of the mountainous mammals whose population has declined due to the destruction of the habitat at the national and international levels. This study was aimed to determine the suitably potential habitat area for wild goat in Bafgh protected ...
Read More
Wild goat (Capra aegagrus) as the most vulnerable species is one of the mountainous mammals whose population has declined due to the destruction of the habitat at the national and international levels. This study was aimed to determine the suitably potential habitat area for wild goat in Bafgh protected area using multi-layer perceptron neural network. A total of 196 points including presence (111 points) and absence (85 point) of the species were collected in fieldwork. 18 variables such as slope, geographical aspect, elevation above sea level, rocky regions, mean temperatures, vegetation types, water resources, inhabited and uninhabited villages, and roads (dirt and asphalt) were used to determine the suitability of habitats. Results showed that Juniperus excelsa -Amygdalus scoparia vegetation type (11.23%), slope steepness (10.42%), distance to south direction (10.15%), distance to Cousinia desertii-Artemisia sieberi-Zygophyllum eurypterum vegetation type (9.9 %), elevation above sea level (9.63%), and distance to water source (9.09%) are the most effective variables in habitat suitability evaluation in the Kouh-e-Bafgh protected area. The model output efficiency of 0.97 was achieved in this study. Based on the results, 36% of the protected area was evaluated as the suitable for wild goat habitat. Results also reveald that by reducing the distance to the roads the suitability of habitats is reduced. Therefore, this study suggests that human activities close to the potentially suitable area is suggested to be avoided.
