Potential Distribution Range of Lycalopex culpaeus Species (Molina, 1782) in the Province of Chimborazo

Abstract

Abstract Species distribution models are very useful for understanding and conserving the patterns and processes that explain biodiversity. The present study determined the potential distribution range of Lycalopex culpaeus (Molina, 1782) species in Chimborazo, Ecuador. A documentary research was conducted that included geographic and bibliographic information and the application of the MaxEnt software for data collection, estimation, and validation of the model. The results showed that the potential distribution range of the L. culpaeus species (Molina, 1782) modeled in the MaxEnt and filtered through the Jackknife test has a high predictive capacity, as indicated by the area under the curve (AUC) that reflects a value of 0.985 for which 28 occurrence sites and four environmental variables were used. The key environmental variables that shape the potential distribution of L. culpaeus (Molina, 1782) are temperature, precipitation, land use, and ecosystems. Therefore, in the province of Chimborazo, the habitat suitability for the L. culpaeus (Molina, 1782) species with a probability of > 50% (0.49–0.99 points) corresponds to 34,255 hectares of its territory and is mainly found in the “paramo” grassland ecosystem in altitudes ranging from 2781 to 3345 masl.

Keywords

• biodiversity, fauna, habitat, maxent.