Assessment of the Conservation Status and Habitat Suitability of Critically Endangered Lorestan Newt (Neurergus Kaiseri) in Lorestan and Khuzestan Provinces

Abstract

Lorestan newt (Neurergus kaiseri) is an endemic species which has restricted dispersal in southern Zagros Mountains in Iran, and it is listed as critically endangered in IUCN red list. Today the populations of this species are decreasing and facing serious threats. In this study, habitat suitability of Neurergus kaiseri was evaluated using a MaxEnt modelling approach according to environmental and climatic parameters (thermal and precipitation). Based on the results derived from the MaxEnt model, the most important parameters were related to annual and seasonality precipitation, annual mean temperature, elevation and land cover, respectively. Also, assessment of the conservation status of this species with species distribution areas and adapting them with protection networks revealed that currently, none of the suitable habitats of Lorestan newt are protected and there is no legal support for conserving these sites that the issue makes this critically endangered species even more vulnerable.

Keywords

• Habitat suitability
• Khuzestan province
• Lorestan province
• Maximum entropy (MaxEnt)
• Neurergus kaiseri
• Protected areas.