On the elephant trails: habitat suitability and connectivity for Asian elephants in eastern Indian landscape.

ABSTRACT: Identifying suitable habitats and conserving corridors are crucial to the long-term conservation of large and conflict-prone animals. Being a flagship species, survival of Asian elephants is threatened by human-induced mortality and habitat modification. We aimed to assess the habitat suitability and connectivity of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758 habitat in the state of Odisha in eastern India. We followed the ensemble of spatial prediction models using species presence data and five environmental variables. We used least-cost path and circuit theory approaches to identify the spatial connectivity between core habitats for Asian elephants. The results revealed that normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI; variable importance 42%) and terrain ruggedness (19%)

SUBMITTER: Palei HS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10984178 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature