Spatially heterogeneous habitat use across distinct biogeographic regions in a wide-ranging predator, the Persian leopard

Large carnivores, despite being sensitive to specific habitat conditions, are able to distribute in a wide range of natural habitats. Such pattern of distribution raises the question of whether ecoregional differences should be considered when developing habitat suitability models. We assessed habitat suitability of the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana) as an example of a wide-ranging predator across four different biogeographic zones of Iran. We used the maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) to perform a general and ecoregion-specific habitat suitability model and projections of the future distribution of the species for the year 2050. The results showed that the habitat use of leopards in each ecoregion differed depending on the habitat conditions and that, due to smoothing response curves of the explanatory variables, the ecoregion-specific distribution models were suppressed in the general model. Topographic ruggedness, access to prey, NDVI, and human presence affect species' habitat suitability in different orders and gradients across the four ecoregions. We also found that the leopard's response to future climate change varies depending on ecoregions and climate change scenarios. While habitat loss is greater than habitat gain in Hyrcanian and Saharo-Sindian regions, this pattern reversed in Irano-Turanian and Zagros ecoregions. We argued that zoning across wide geographical ranges in niche modelling of widespread species, while may underestimate their environmental tolerance, allows for proper judgments on the required conservation measures in different ecoregions.