干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The Souss-Massa National Park in southern Morocco supports the majority of the last remaining breeding population of the critically threatened Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita. As a contribution towards management planning this paper identifies good quality Northern Bald Ibis feeding habitat in the Park, using landscape mapping and classification as a basis for feeding habitat suitability modelling. The results demonstrate that feeding habitat can be accurately predicted and mapped at the landscape scale, landscape ecology contributing significantly to the identification of the vegetation and land use characteristics of 'good' steppe feeding habitat and within the Park. The results presented here clarify Northern Bald Ibis feeding habitat requirements in the Park both in terms of its quality and distribution and represent an important step towards identifying priority areas for conservation and the targeting of resources.