The Iberian ibex is under an expansion trendbut displaced to suboptimal habitats by the presenceof extensive goat livestock in central Spain
2007
Acevedo, Pelayo | Cassinello, Jorge | Gortazar, Christian
In this paper an updated distribution of the Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica, Schinz 1838) in the central Spanish region of Castile-La Mancha is shown. The species is present in 19% of the study region, and in areas not cited so far in the literature. A detailed analysis of habitat suitability was also carried out, applying a new methodology, Ecological-Niche Factor Analysis, which uses presence data to build a habitat suitability map of a given species. As livestock activity is quite intense in the region, the presence of a potential competitor, the domestic goat (Capra hircus), was included in the analyses. Factors affecting ibex relative abundance were determined by means of a nested stepwise multiple regression, where livestock presence/absence was the nested factor. The presence of livestock has a negative effect on ibex relative abundance, causing the ibex to select areas of poor, sparse vegetation, cultivated lands and forests, whereas in the absence of livestock, the ibex is mainly present in pasture-scrub lands and non-cultivated lands. Conservation implications of these results are discussed in the context of a Mediterranean region where extensive livestock grazing systems abound.
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