Home Range and Habitat Selection of Feral Horses (Equus ferus f. caballus) in a Mountainous Environment: A Case Study from Northern Greece
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Area
2.2. Location Data
2.3. Home Range Size
2.4. Habitat Selection
2.4.1. Environmental Variables
2.4.2. K-Select Analysis
2.5. Habitat Suitability
2.6. Sample Size and Model Inferences
3. Results
3.1. Home Range Size
3.2. Habitat Selection
3.3. Habitat Suitability
4. Discussion
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variable | Abbreviation | Description |
---|---|---|
Topographic ruggedness index * | TRI | Amount of elevation difference between adjacent cells of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) [52] |
Solar radiation * | SR | Amount of incoming solar radiation |
Elevation * | DEM | Digital elevation data (ASTER) |
Slope * | Slope | Slope in degrees calculated from the DEM |
Aspect * | Aspect | Aspect values identifying the compass direction that the downhill slope faces for each location (pixel) |
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index *** | NDVI | The NDVI is a dimensionless index that describes the difference between visible and near-infrared reflectance of vegetation cover and can be used to estimate the density of green on an area of land [53] |
Distance to broadleaved forests ** | BR | Euclidean distance from broadleaved forests |
Distance to pastures ** | P | Euclidean distance from pastures |
Distance to sparsely vegetated areas ** | SP | Euclidean distance from sparsely vegetated areas |
Distance to natural grasslands ** | G | Euclidean distance from natural grasslands |
Distance to sclerophyllous vegetation ** | SC | Euclidean distance from sclerophyllous vegetation |
Home Range Size | H1 | H2 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
MCP | KD | MCP | KD | |
95% | 26.27 | 29.68 | 27.16 | 26.01 |
90% | 21.19 | 23.91 | 20.88 | 20.34 |
85% | 19.05 | 20.21 | 18.20 | 16.71 |
80% | 17.34 | 17.49 | 16.38 | 14.06 |
75% | 16.45 | 15.29 | 14.40 | 12.01 |
70% | 15.68 | 13.39 | 13.21 | 10.33 |
65% | 13.46 | 11.72 | 11.32 | 8.92 |
Test of Marginality | Individual | |
---|---|---|
H1 | H2 | |
Marginality value | 1.108 | 1.312 |
p-value | <0.001 * | <0.001 * |
Selection of environmental variables (marginality vectors) | ||
TRI | −0.240 * | −0.294 * |
SR | 0.209 * | 0.070 |
DEM | 0.057 | 0.149 * |
Slope | −0.587 * | −0.683 * |
Aspect | −0.260 * | −0.221 * |
NDVI | 0.405 * | 0.396 * |
BR | 0.091 * | 0.132 * |
P | 0.137 * | 0.209 * |
SP | 0.161 * | 0.060 |
G | −0.571 * | −0.679 * |
SC | 0.214 * | 0.003 |
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Bakaloudis, D.E.; Thoma, C.T.; Makridou, K.N.; Kotsonas, E.G.; Arsenos, G.; Theodoridis, A.; Kontsiotis, V. Home Range and Habitat Selection of Feral Horses (Equus ferus f. caballus) in a Mountainous Environment: A Case Study from Northern Greece. Land 2024, 13, 1165. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13081165
Bakaloudis DE, Thoma CT, Makridou KN, Kotsonas EG, Arsenos G, Theodoridis A, Kontsiotis V. Home Range and Habitat Selection of Feral Horses (Equus ferus f. caballus) in a Mountainous Environment: A Case Study from Northern Greece. Land. 2024; 13(8):1165. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13081165
Chicago/Turabian StyleBakaloudis, Dimitrios E., Charalambos T. Thoma, Konstantina N. Makridou, Evangelos G. Kotsonas, Georgios Arsenos, Alexandros Theodoridis, and Vasileios Kontsiotis. 2024. "Home Range and Habitat Selection of Feral Horses (Equus ferus f. caballus) in a Mountainous Environment: A Case Study from Northern Greece" Land 13, no. 8: 1165. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13081165