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Habitat Modeling of the Common Pheasant Phasianus Colchicus

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Research Collection Journal Article Habitat modeling of the common pheasant Phasianus colchicus (Galliformes: Phasianidae) in a highly modified landscape: application of species distribution models in the study of a poorly documented bird in Iran Author(s): Ashoori, Abbas; Kafash, Anooshe; Varasteh Moradi, Hossien; Yousefi, Masoud; Kamyab, Hamidreza R.; Behdarvand, Neda; Mohammadi, Saeed A. Publication Date: 2018-01 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000302396 Originally published in: European Zoological Journal 85(1), http://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2018.1510994 Rights / License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library The European Zoological Journal ISSN: (Print) 2475-0263 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tizo21 Habitat modeling of the common pheasant Phasianus colchicus (Galliformes: Phasianidae) in a highly modified landscape: application of species distribution models in the study of a poorly documented bird in Iran A. Ashoori, A. Kafash, H. Varasteh Moradi, M. Yousefi, H. Kamyab, N. Behdarvand & S. Mohammadi To cite this article: A. Ashoori, A. Kafash, H. Varasteh Moradi, M. Yousefi, H. Kamyab, N. Behdarvand & S. Mohammadi (2018) Habitat modeling of the common pheasant Phasianus colchicus (Galliformes: Phasianidae) in a highly modified landscape: application of species distribution models in the study of a poorly documented bird in Iran, The European Zoological Journal, 85:1, 373-381, DOI: 10.1080/24750263.2018.1510994 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2018.1510994 © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Published online: 05 Oct 2018. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 82 View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tizo21 The European Zoological Journal, 2018, 373–381 Vol. 85, No. 1, https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2018.1510994 Habitat modeling of the common pheasant Phasianus colchicus (Galliformes: Phasianidae) in a highly modified landscape: application of species distribution models in the study of a poorly documented bird in Iran A. ASHOORI 1, A. KAFASH 2,3, H. VARASTEH MORADI4, M. YOUSEFI *2,5, H. KAMYAB4, N. BEHDARVAND4, & S. MOHAMMADI 6 1Gilan Provincial Office of the Department of the Environment, Rasht, Iran, 2Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran, 3Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Zurich, Switzerland, 4Department of Environmental Sciences, College of Fisheries and Environmental Sciences, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran, 5Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland, and 6Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran (Received 10 December 2016; accepted 6 August 2018) Abstract The common pheasant is listed as a nationally protected species in Iran because it faces many threats such as habitat destruction, pollution from pesticides and overhunting. The species’ habitat selection remains unknown in Iran; consequently, conservation planning for the species is hampered by this lack of information. In this study we used predictor variables including topographic, anthropogenic, land cover and climate and 122 occurrence points to model the distribution of common pheasant (subspecies P. c. talischensis), in Gilan province, Iran. The results showed that distance to agriculture and orchards as well as distance to plantation forests were the most important variables in predicting species distribution. Furthermore, we found that the total potential suitable habitat for the species in Gilan province is 315,990 hectares. We observed a shift of the species to higher altitudes in the province. We recommend raising awareness about the presence of the species especially among private landowners, creating a network of protected areas on private land, and changing land-use policies at the provincial level as essential measures for the conservation of the species in Gilan province. Our results can be applied to management and conservation of the species in other modified or rapidly changing landscapes. Keywords: Avian ecology, avian conservation, distribution, Maxent, Iran Introduction (Robinson et al. 1995; Smith & Hellmann 2002), survival (Harris 1984) and movement (Shirley 2006; Natural habitats are rapidly changing worldwide; Tucker et al. 2018) of terrestrial animal species therefore, persistence of biodiversity on this chan- (Suárez-Seoane et al. 2008; Tucker et al. 2018). ging globe is a major challenge (Ricketts et al. 2004; Gilan province is one of the most rapidly changing Lavorel et al. 2007; Priess et al. 2007; Turner et al. provinces in terms of land use (forest to agricultural 2007a,b). Human transformation of land cover and land) in Iran (Nohegar et al. 2015). As a result of land use are the primary causes of biodiversity loss land-use change, urban growth and land degrada- (Haines-Young 2009). As a consequence, continu- tion, the distributions of some terrestrial species ous habitats are being divided into discontinuous have changed in recent years (Ashoori 2009). To patches, which affects population recruitment conserve biodiversity at a provincial scale, it is *Correspondence: M. Yousefi, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. Tel: +98- 9906131955. Fax: +98-26-32229683. Email: yousefi[email protected] © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 374 A. Ashoori et al. necessary to understand how recent environmental et al. 1975). Phasianus colchicus has four subspecies changes may affect the distribution of species. in Iran – P. c. colchicus, P. c. talischensis, P. c. persicus The common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is one and P. c. principalis – that can be distinguished from of the most widespread ground-dwelling game birds each other based on morphological characteristics in the Palearctic region, listed as Least Concern in (Kayvanfar & Aliabadian 2013; Kayvanfar et al. the International Union for Conservation of Nature 2013, 2017). Phasianus c. colchicus occurs in Red List (IUCN 2016). Several studies that have Kalibar Mountains in North of East-Azerbaijan pro- been conducted on the demography of and habitat vince, P. c. talischensis in Gilan province, P. c. persi- selection by pheasants in Italy showed that male cus from west of Mazandaran province to Golestan territories are preferentially placed along natural or province (Kayvanfar & Aliabadian 2013; Mahmoudi spontaneous vegetation strips (wood edges, fences, et al. 2016), and P. c. principalis in north-east hedgerows and tree rows) and in areas characterised Khorasan-e-Razavi province from Quchan County by high habitat diversity (Meriggi et al. 1996; Nelli east to Sarakhs County (Kayvanfar & Aliabadian et al. 2012). The presence and abundance of popu- 2013; Kayvanfar et al. 2017). Despite this species lations are linked to the presence of suitable vegeta- being known in terms of morphology (Kayvanfar tion for the settlement of territorial males (Nelli et al. 2013) and phylogeny (Kayvanfar et al. 2017), et al. 2012). Hen density, however, seems to be its habitat selection remains unknown in Iran; as a more linked to suitable sites for nesting, because consequence, conservation planning of the species is they choose to nest out of territories defended by hampered by this lack of information. males (Hill & Robertson 1988; Nelli et al. 2012). Our work is the first effort to build a robust habi- Baxter et al. (1996) showed that patches of smaller tat suitability model and explore the environmental size that are characterised by long and irregular drivers of common pheasant distribution in Iran. In edges are more suitable habitats compared to larger the present study we examined the population from patches with regular edges. However, the study by Gilan province, where the subspecies P. c. talischen- Nelli et al. (2012) showed that pheasants select sis is present. It has been reported that the subspe- small habitat patches but with more regular edges. cies talischensis is very rare throughout its range Sage and Tucker (1998) found that nesting bird (BirdLife International 2016) and has decreased in density was significantly lower in larger patches of many parts of the province during recent years due short-rotation forestry, and highlighted the positive to habitat destruction, land-use changes and over- effect of ecotone on nesting pheasants (Nelli et al. hunting. Because of recent rapid changes of land use 2012). Pheasants utilise marginal belts that supply in Gilan province (Ashoori 2009; Nohegar et al. them with food and protect them from predators 2015) we hypothesised that anthropogenic factors and severe weather, due to the development of her- such as roads and human-modified land use includ- baceous and bushy cover (Nelli
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