Range-Wide Habitat Mapping for Ord’s Kangaroo Rats (Dipodomys ordii)

Abstract

Ord’s kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ordii) is federally listed as an endangered species in Canada. This is the northern-most population of the species, occurring in only two Canadian provinces: Alberta and Saskatchewan. Building on the previous models and extensive knowledge of the kangaroo rat population in Alberta, a habitat model was developed and extrapolated across the entire Canadian extent. The habitat model was trained using population data obtained in Alberta. The top model, as indicated by Akaike’s Information Criteria (AICc), was used to estimate the area of available habitat in Saskatchewan. An alternate model was also developed to test for potential bias toward river valley slopes in the top model. Population estimates ranged from 6,522 for the top model to 8,876 for the alternate model. In future studies, the performance of the model may be improved through better image classification and the use of more biologically relevant model variables.