Modeling Habitat Requirements of Leopard(Panthera pardus) Using Genetic Algorithm in GolestanNational Park

Top predators are seen as keystone species of ecosystems. knowledge oftheir habitat requirements is important for their conservation and for stabilityof the interacting wildlife communities. recent environmental destructionshave generally led to major habitat loss, so protection of the leopards’habitats is regarded as very important. as such, habitat management based onmodeling is strongly recommended as a practical solution. the goal of thisstudy was to model the habitat of leopard panthera pardus in golestannational park, where it is endangered, and determine the most importantparameters affecting its habitat. in this paper, i apply the technique ecologicalniche modeling using genetic algorithm for rule-set prediction (garp) topredict the distributions of this species. the results of this study showed thatthe distribution of the leopard is affected by altitude, and prey density. thisresearch also provides an algorithm for sample data management, whichcould be used in modeling habitats of the similar species.