distribution range in Iran

ABSTRACT: Effective management and protection of wild life population depends to a large part on our ability to understand and predict species habitat and its relevant evolutions. Therefore, various methods of habitat modelling which have been increasingly used in wild life management since 1970 are able to provide useful information on the relationship between species and species habitat. We used a novel method known as maximum entropy distribution modelling or Maxent for predicting potential suitable habitat for Afghan Pika (Ochotona rufescens) in Iran Using climatic parameters in fact we predicted the area in which the climate is suitable for pika to succeed, the results of the present study indicated that some of the most important climatic factors in habitat suitability and limiting the distribution of Pikas include annual mean temperature (54.8%), temperature annual range (31.5%), Precipitation of Coldest Quarter (4.8%). In addition, the performance of the model by the area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC), showed that the modelling approach used in this study is in excellent yield (average AUC = 0.846; SD = 0.103). Therefore, using Maxent method and presence dataset, it is possible to model the geographical location of species. The obtained suitability map significantly explains the dispersal of Pika in Iran and has a good consistency with other studies done. The method presented in this method is effectively able to predict suitable habitats o