Occupancy Modeling of Red Deer in Hyrcanian Forests (Case Study: Golestan National Park)

Preservation of biodiversity is one of the main objectives in protection and management of wildlife and habitat destruction is one of the greatest threats known on the worldwide biodiversity. Different species of deers have been described and distributed around the world. In Iran, there are only three species of deer, of which the red deer (Cervus elaphus) is the largest one. Red deer is a flagship species and study on the conservation status of this species is an important task for ecosystem management. The present study examined the occupation of red deer in Golestan National Park. The main goal of this study was to investigate the factors influencing occupation model of red deer and determine the amount of occupied habitat by this species. In this research, the study area was divided into 3×3 kilometers grids based on GIS maps using the Hawths Tools. The size of each grid was determined based on red deer movement. Within each grid, three line transects (each transect with 500 m in length), with north-south direction and random-systematic design were chosen. The effects of nine variables were analyzed on red deer occupation. The results showed that the estimated value for occupation and detection rate was 0.87 and 0.81, respectively. Moreover, among the nine variables, four variables namely distance from road, Shannon diversity index of tree species, tree species richness, and distance from agricultural areas took into account as effective factors on occupancy and detection rates.