Habitat Suitability Evaluation of the Chinese Horseshoe Bat (<i>R. sinicus</i>) in the Wuling Mountain Area Based on MAXENT Modelling

Abstract

The modelling of habitat suitability and the prediction of the spatial distribution of species are important for the conservation of endangered species. In this paper, the evaluation of habitat suitability of the Chinese horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus sinicus) in the Wuling Mountains was studied. The global positioning system (GPS), remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) were used to obtain ground survey data and analyse the habitat factors driving the distribution of R. sinicus. The binary logistic regression model and the Maximum Entropy Model (MAXENT model) were used to analyse the habitat suitability of R. sinicus, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the models. The results showed that both models had high prediction accuracy, but the results of the MAXENT model were more stable than those of the binary logistic regression model when the sample size changed, indicating that the MAXENT model was the optimal method. Thena jack-knife test was used to determine the importance of the influencing factors. The results showed that the main factors influencing habitat selection were annual mean temperature, annual precipitation, the nearest distance from a settlement and vegetation fractional coverage (VFC). The suitable habitat was mainly distributed in the middle region of the study area. Marginally suitable habitat was located on the edge of suitable habitat, and unsuitable habitats were mainly distributed in the southern and northwestern regions.

Present and future distribution of bat hosts of sarbecoviruses: implications for conservation and public health

“…Species differing environment responses reinforce the need to evaluate species-specific differences, even within the same genus. For example, R. sinicus lives in montane forests [61], yet R. affinis can live in lowland forest, dry forest and disturbed areas [58]. R. ferrumequinum, a species ranging from Europe and Northwest Africa to Asia, hibernates during winter in caves, but this varies across the range and with age and sex [58].…”

Present and future distribution of bat hosts of sarbecoviruses: implications for conservation and public health

“…Our findings, therefore, reinforce the need to evaluate differing environment responses even within the same genus. For example, R. sinicus lives in montane forests [68], yet R. affinis can live in lowland forest, dry forest and disturbed areas [64]. R. ferrumequinum, a species ranging from Europe and Northwest Africa to Asia, hibernates during winter in caves, but this varies across the range and with age and sex [64].…”

Changes in habitat suitability and population size of the endangered Przewalski's gazelle

“…A total of 11 variables were selected and were categorized into 3 groups: topographic, land cover, and anthropogenic disturbance (Table 1) (Sun et al 2021;Zahoor et al 2021). The topographic variables initially included elevation, slope, aspect, curvature, and relief (Kelly et al 2016;Luo et al 2020). The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with a 30 m spatial resolution was downloaded from the Geospatial Data Cloud website.…”

“…It has been widely used in wildlife conservation (Abolmaali et al 2018; Elith et al 2006), and much progress has been developed in this eld (Guisan and Thuiller 2005). Technically, these models simulate species distribution with environmental data, and can be categorized into mechanistic models (Fan et al 2014), regression models (Goiti et al 2008), and niche models (de Souza and De Marco Jr 2014; Luo et al 2020). As a popular niche model, the MaxEnt model is often used for habitat evaluation due to its high accuracy, high computational e ciency, and ease of use (Elith et al 2006;Wisz et al 2008).…”