Introduction
These magnificently bright orange creatures were once commonly spotted congregated in large groups near small vernal pools during seasonal breeding periods. Yet, within the span of a year, known populations dropped from approximately 1'500 to just one lone male. Their brief appearance in history has left their rapid decline a 30-year-old mystery.
The shroud of mystery surrounding the origin of the toad's disappearance does provide a margin of hope concerning their contemporary survival. A plausible migration narrative should steer exploration efforts beyond the boundaries of the last-known spotting. Therefore, isolating similar ecoregions to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve will provide an essential preliminary scope of where succeeding search expeditions should transpire.
To identify additional plausible habitat areas for Golden Toads throughout Costa Rica, a Species Distribution Model (SDM) analysis was performed. ArcGIS Pro was used for pre-and post-processing data, while Maxent was employed to create the model.
Affiliation
Villanova University
Course
GEV 8320: Conservation GIS
Tool & Software Highlights
Maxent: Species Distribution Model
ArcGIS Pro: Reclassify, Raster to Polygon, TPI