Camera traps reveal use of caves by Asiatic black bears (<i>Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus</i>) (Mammalia: Ursidae) in southeastern Iran

Fahimi, Hadi; Yusefi, Gholam Hosein; Madjdzadeh, Seyed Massoud; Damangir, Abbas Ali; Sehhatisabet, Mohammad E.; Khalatbari, Leili

doi:10.1080/00222933.2011.596632

Cited by 43 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Additional information on the areas is provided in Table 1. First, by reviewing the studies conducted on this species [46,58] and the reports from the Department of Environment (DoE) of Kerman, Sistan-Baluchestan, and Hormozgan provinces, the geographic range of the species was determined. Field surveys (from early April 2018 to early April 2019) were then conducted to record the presence points.…”

Section: Study Area and Species Occurrencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By reviewing the studies performed on this species [46,49,53,57] climatic, topographic, anthropogenic, and vegetation variables including elevation, distance from gardens, main roads, streams (waterways), human settlements, landscape fragmentation index, cluster hill shade of elevation, and average Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used as the model inputs. The elevation variable was prepared with an approximate accuracy of one kilometer from the WORLDCLIM database [60].…”

Section: Environmental Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The subspecies is distributed in Iran and Pakistan and is also known as Balochistan black bear. The distribution of this species is limited to the mountainous areas around Sistan-Baluchestan, Hormozgan, and Kerman Provinces [46]. Although the Asian black bear is classified as a vulnerable species based on IUCN red list [45], the subspecies of Iranian black bear is highly endangered due to the population decline and habitat isolation [47,48].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The habitats of this species are the mountainous and forest areas in the south of Kerman Province, and the dispersed habitats of nannorrhops ritchieana shrubs and olive trees in Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan Provinces. They come out of their den at late dusk and get back before sunrise [46]. They mostly feed on herbs, such as fruits and sprouts [51].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Accessing habitat suitability and connectivity for the westernmost population of Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus, Blanford, 1877) based on climate changes scenarios in Iran

Morovati¹,

Karami

Amjas³

2020

PLoS ONE

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Climate change, as an emerging phenomenon, has led to changes in the distribution, movement, and even risk of extinction of various wildlife species and this has raised concerns among conservation biologists. Different species have two options in the face of climate change, either to adopt or follow their climatic niche to new places through the connectivity of habitats. The modeling of interpatch landscape communications can serve as an effective decision support tool for wildlife managers. This study was conducted to assess the effects of climate change on the distribution and habitat connectivity of the endangered subspecies of Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus) in the southern and southeastern Iran. The presence points of the species were collected in Provinces of Kerman, Hormozgan, and Sistan-Baluchestan. Habitat modeling was done by the Generalized Linear Model, and 3 machine learning models including Maximum Entropy, Back Propagation based artificial Neural Network, and Support Vector Machine. In order to achieve the ensemble model, the results of the mentioned models were merged based on the method of “accuracy rate as weight” derived from their validation. To construct pseudo-absence points for the use in the mentioned models, the Ensemble model of presence-only models was used. The modeling was performed using 15 habitat variables related to climatic, vegetation, topographic, and anthropogenic parameters. The three general circulation models of BCC-CSM1, CCSM4, and MRI-CGCM3 were selected under the two scenarios of RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 by 2070. To investigate the effect of climate change on the habitat connections, the protected areas of 3 provinces were considered as focal nodes and the connections between them were established based on electrical circuit theory and Pairwise method. The true skill statistic was employed to convert the continuous suitability layers to binary suitable/unsuitable range maps to assess the effectiveness of the protected areas in the coverage of suitable habitats for the species. Due to the high power of the stochastic forest model in determining the importance of variables, this method was used. The results showed that presence/absence models were successful in the implementation and well distinguished the points of presence and pseudo-absence from each other. Based on the random forests model, the variables of Precipitation of Driest Quarter, Precipitation of Coldest Quarter, and Temperature Annual Range have the greatest impact on the habitat suitability. Comparing the modeling findings to the realities of the species distribution range indicated that the suitable habitats are located in areas with high humidity and rainfall, which are mostly in the northern areas of Bandar Abbas, south of Kerman, and west and south of Sistan-Baluchestan. The area of suitable habitats, in the MRI-CGCM3 (189731 Km2) and CCSM4 (179007 Km2) models under the RCP2.6 scenario, is larger than the current distribution (174001 Km2). However, in terms of the performance of protected areas, the optimal coverage of the species by the boundary of the protected areas, under each of the RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios, is less than the present time. According to the electric circuit theory, connecting the populations in the protected areas of Sistan-Baluchestan province to those in the northern Hormozgan and the southern Kerman would be based on the crossing through the heights of Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces and the plains between these heights would be the movement pinch points under the current and future scenarios. Populations in the protected areas of Kerman have higher quality patch connections than that of the other two provinces. The areas such as Sang-e_Mes, Kouh_Shir, Zaryab, and Bahr_Aseman in Kerman Province and Kouhbaz and Geno in Hormozgan Province can provide suitable habitats for the species in the distribution models. The findings revealed that the conservation of the heights along with the caves inside them could be a protective priority to counteract the effects of climate change on the species.

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Section: Study Area and Species Occurrencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Environmental Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Accessing habitat suitability and connectivity for the westernmost population of Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus, Blanford, 1877) based on climate changes scenarios in Iran

Morovati¹,

Karami

Amjas³

2020

PLoS ONE

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“…In Iran, Asiatic black bears are confined to small and isolated patches in the remote mountainous areas of the southeastern part of the country (Almasieh et al 2016;Almasieh and Kaboli 2018;Farashi and Erfani 2018). This population, also known as the Baluchistan black bear, is the westernmost marginal population of the species, as well as one of the most threatened (Fahimi et al 2011; Garshelis and Steinmetz 2016). Furthermore, not only is this population geographically marginal but it is also an ecologically marginal population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic analysis of marginal Asiatic black bears reveals a recent Iranian–Himalayan divergence and has implications for taxonomy and conservation

et al. 2020

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A small population of Asiatic black bear-known as the Baluchistan black bear-survives in the western limit of the species' range in Iran, where the species is rare, difficult to monitor and occupy an atypical habitat with extreme environmental conditions. Through the use of noninvasively collected samples, we analyzed mitochondrial DNA control region sequences to evaluate the phylogenetic relationships and divergence time between the Baluchistan Iranian black bear population and other Asian populations. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that Baluchistan and Nepalese (Himalayan) populations are monophyletic, with their divergence time estimated at circa 120 thousand years ago. The results reveal the low level of mitochondrial DNA variability in this small and marginal population, as is the case for many bear populations living in areas with similar conditions. The divergence time between the populations from Iran and Nepal dates to the Late Pleistocene, pointing to a transitional period between colder (glacial) and warmer (interglacial) conditions that allowed forests to expand and opened new habitats to population expansions. Pending further genetic and morphological corroboration, these preliminary results suggest that all Baluchistan and Himalayan (Nepalese) black bears might be considered as synonymous under the prior U. t. thibetanus trinomial (with gedrosianus just as junior synonym). Conservation efforts on this small and endangered population remain poor, and further measures are required to guarantee its long-term survival in Iran. Keywords Baluchistan black bear • Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus • Himalayan black bear • Late pleistocene • Subspecies taxonomy • Ursus thibetanus Handling editor: Paul Grobler. Leili Khalatbari and Michael J. Jowers have contributed equally. Hadi Fahimi deceased.

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Developing an empirical approach to optimal camera-trap deployment at mammal resting sites: evidence from a longitudinal study of an otter Lutra lutra holt

et al. 2017

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Camera traps reveal use of caves by Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus) (Mammalia: Ursidae) in southeastern Iran

Cited by 43 publications

References 11 publications

Accessing habitat suitability and connectivity for the westernmost population of Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus, Blanford, 1877) based on climate changes scenarios in Iran

Accessing habitat suitability and connectivity for the westernmost population of Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus, Blanford, 1877) based on climate changes scenarios in Iran

Phylogenetic analysis of marginal Asiatic black bears reveals a recent Iranian–Himalayan divergence and has implications for taxonomy and conservation

Developing an empirical approach to optimal camera-trap deployment at mammal resting sites: evidence from a longitudinal study of an otter Lutra lutra holt

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