DISTRIBUTION OF SWAMP FRANCOLIN FRANCOLINUS GULARIS IN ASSAM: INFLUENCE OF ABIOTIC AND LAND COVER PARAMETERSNilutpal Mahanta, Prasanta Kumar Saikia and Anukul NathAbstract Francolinus gularis is a territorial bird resident of tall swampy grassland endemic to the Ganga and Brahmaputra River basins in India and Nepal. Due to its declining population IUCN has declared this species as vulnerable to extinction. Due to changes in the global climate the loss of biodiversity and changes in species composition are at its peak. In this study we tried to understand the influence of environmental variables on the occurrence probability of F.gularis in Assam, India through Max Ent ecological niche modelling program. The results of the model were satisfactory with high AUC value. It showed that Assam has around 634 sq. km (0.80%) of area with high probabilities of finding the species. It was also found that land use land cover (LULC) and precipitation of driest month are the highest contributing factor for the distribution of F.gularis. The occurrence probabilities are higher in the LULC classes- Grassland, Deciduous Forest, wetland and Shrub land. The annual precipitation within the range of 2000-3000 millimetres and annual mean temperature of 24 ºC are found to be optimum for higher occurrence probability of the species in the study area. Increasing human population, changing climate and global warming seems to possess great threats to the survival of the species, especially in the habitats outside protected areas. |