Journal of Environmental Biology

The indicator plant species of wild animals in

the Gidengelmez mountains district

H. S?EL¹*, D. AKDEMİR², A. KIRA?³ and Y. ?NAL⁴

¹Forestry Department, S?t??ler Vocational School, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, 32950, Turkey

²Forestry Department, Dursunbey, Vocational School, Balıkesir University, Isparta, 10800, Turkey

³Department of Wildlife Ecology and Management,? Faculty of Forestry, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, 32100, Turkey

⁴Department of Wildlife Ecology and Management,? Faculty of Forestry, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, 32100, Turkey

*Corresponding Author E-mail: halilsuel@sdu.edu.tr

Key words

Forest ecosystems,

Indicator of habitat suitability,

Mediterranean region,

Wild animals

Publication Data

Paper received : 22.08.2016

Revised received : 25.06.2017

Accepted : 28.06.2017

Abstract

Aim: The present study was carried out to identify indicator plant species of wild animals in the Gidengelmez mountains district.

Methodology: The data was collected from 95 sample plots. Since all the data used were is binary, inter-specific, correlation analysis was applied to examine the interrelationships between wild animals and plant taxa.

Results: It was found that the most important indicator plants of wild animals were Salvia tomentosa, Micromeria myrtifolia, Vicia cracca subsp. stenophylla, Arum dioscoridis var. spectabile, Rosa canina, Juniperus oxycedrus? and? Berberis crataegina. Vicia cracca subsp. stenophylla was the common indicator species for European hare (Lepus europaeus) and Badger (Meles meles), whereas Salvia tomentosa and Micromeria myrtifolia were significantly associated with Beech marten (Martes foina) and Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) The most important indicator plant for Wild boar (Sus scrofa) was Berberis crataegina.? With regard to wild goat (Capra aegagrus) and brown bear (Ursus arctos), no plant was found to have strong indicatory value.

Interpretation: Correlation between occurrence and richness of wild animals and plant species richness was examined by Spearman correlation and Pearson correlation analysis. Among wild animals, only European hare was significantly related to plant species richness at the level of 0.05. The relationship between wild animal richness and species richness was found insignificant.

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