Modeling habitat suitability of bats to identify high priority areas for field monitoring and conservation

Bats provide important ecosystem services but face severe threats due to land and climate changes. Although bats are an important component of mammal diversity in Iran, the ecology of many species remains virtually unstudied in the country. Here we applied the maximum entropy approach to model habitat suitability of bat species in Iran, identify the most important variables for their distribution, predict high priority areas for field monitoring and conservation, and estimate the coverage of the bat species’ suitable habitats by the existing protected areas. We created a richness map for the twelve species to identify high priority areas for field monitoring and conservation. The results of species distribution modeling showed that Pipistrellus kuhlii (828,977.2 km 2 ) and Miniopterus pallidus (646,581.9 km 2 ) had the largest distribution ranges and Rhinopoma microphyllum (211,202.7 km 2 ) and Rousettus aegyptiacus (218,278.6 km 2 ) had the smallest distribution ranges in Iran. By averaging the importance of each ecological variable across the 12 species, we found that distance to forests (with a negative association) is the most important ecological driver of bat distribution in Iran. The Zagros Mountains were identified as a hotspot of bats based on the distribution of the 12 species. Our findings showed that small proportions of each species suitable habitats were covered by protected areas and protected suitable habitats varied from 3.2%for Pipistrellus kuhlii to15.9% for Tadarida teniotis . This study highlights the importance of forests for bat conservation showing that forest conservation is a high priority in the country. Areas which have the highest richness should be prioritized for field monitoring and conservation.