Modeling the habitat suitability of the Caspian pheasant ‎‎(Phasianus colchicus persicus) in the Miankaleh Biosphere ‎Reserve

Determining the habitat suitability, understanding the relationship between species and environment, and choosing it as a niche is one of the main steps of management and a key step of wildlife species protection. Miankaleh biosphere reserve is one of the important habitats for the Caspian comment pheasant (Phasianus colchicus persicus), and suitability of its habitat was investigated in this study. The modeling of habitat suitability was conducted using 61 occurrence records of the species and environmental variables, including; distance to farm, cattle rearing, ranger’s station, water resources, roads and NDVI; based on the maximum entropy algorithm. We found that proximity to water resources, high density of vegetation, and proximity to ranger’s station play as the major role in habitat suitability of the species, respectively. The habitat of the Caspian comment pheasant was not most suitable in the Miankaleh biosphere reserve due to destruction of coastal habitats, road construction, conversion to agricultural land, intentional and unintentional fires of vegetation, use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the edge of woodland and farm. So that, its habitat sustainability was very limited and inclined to the southwestern habitats of the region.