Modeling habitat suitability for Yunnan Snub-nosed monkeys in Laojun Mountain National Park

Abstract

We provide new information on Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) behavioral ecology, contributing to future conservation efforts within the Laojun Mountain National Park. Habitat evaluation procedures are used to quantify the value of land as a habitat for a species. We analyzed environmental variables hypothesized to influence habitat suitability for Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, and mapped the distribution of suitable habitats across the study area and adjacent areas. Spatial analysis with GPS data was conducted to investigate home-range change of these monkeys. Predictor variables were generated using ArcMap and R programming language. We prepared 34 environmental variables at 30-m spatial resolution. Maxent was used to analyze environmental variables that contributed to suitability. Using satellite remote sensing and GIS, we modeled the distribution of suitable habitat for Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in the Jinsichang area of the Laojun Mountains in China. This study did not describe the frequency or intensity of habitat use. Habitat suitability was affected by several variables, the most influential, as determined by permutation importance, being mean diurnal temperature range (31.6%), precipitation during the wettest quarter of the year (30.4%), average annual precipitation (17%), normalized difference vegetation index (5%), wetness (4.6%), and aspect (4.5%). This habitat suitability model provides information about the current distribution of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, which is important for appropriate implementation of conservation actions.