Modelling the habitat suitability of the Arabian sand boa Eryx jayakari (Serpentes: Erycidae)

ABSTRACT

The Arabian sand boa, Eryx jayakari Boulenger, 1888, is a highly adapted species living mostly in sandy deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and southwestern Iran. In order to reveal the most suitable habitats and determine the most effective environmental factors in distribution of the species through maximum entropy approach (MaxEnt), recorded localities of the species with bioclimatic, altitude, slope, soil and land cover variables were analyzed. Altitude with 35.93% contribution and annual mean temperature with 23.60% contribution were the most effecting factors on the distribution of the species. According to the projected map, some parts of the coastal areas of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman with low altitude and interior regions of the Arabian Peninsula are among the suitable habitats of the species.

KEYWORDS:

• Eryx jayakari
• habitat suitability
• ecological factors

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Omid Rahimi for his assistance in surveying of the habitat of the species in Khuzestan plain.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.