ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Habitat Suitability Evaluation of the Chinese
Horseshoe Bat (R. sinicus) in the Wuling Mountain
Area Based on MAXENT Modelling
More details
Hide details
1
School of Geography, Geomatics and Planning, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China
2
Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China
3
State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Beijing, China
4
College of Biology, Jishou University, Jishou, Hunan, China
Submission date: 2018-10-20
Final revision date: 2018-12-25
Acceptance date: 2018-12-27
Online publication date: 2019-09-18
Publication date: 2020-01-16
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2020;29(2):1263-1273
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
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.