CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Habitat loss is one of the main factors that promote wildlife diversity decrease and restricts its conservation. Habitat suitability models have become important tools for wildlife management and conservation because of their ability to evaluate the impacts of human activities on their habitats. The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is a semi-aquatic rodent that lives in South American wetlands, supporting heavy human use. A spatially explicit model of capybara´s Potential Habitat Suitability (PHS) was developed for the core area of its distribution in the humid subtropical region of Argentina. Predictive variables considered in this deductive model were related to its habitat requirements, and their values were obtained from existing published papers. The PHS model was performed using two data subsets that evaluated both ecological requirements and anthropogenic threats, resulting in two partial indices: Potential Ecological Suitability (PES), and Risk of Human Impact (RHI). The PES assesses vegetation cover and the presence of lentic and lotic freshwater bodies. The RHI estimates habitat fragmentation and accessibility of poachers. Variables for the habitat requirements were spatially expressed through a Geographic Information Systems. The model accuracy assessment was performed through field work and achieved 72% of overall accuracy. Results indicate that only the 13% of the study area has the highest values of PHS index, which is characterized by the presence of vast wetlands, habitats with low fragmentation as well as low accessibility for poachers. We consider these results are a useful tool to improve conservation and management programs for protection of capybaras habitat.

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