Assessing current and future habitat suitability of the Endangered Syrian Brown Bear (Ursus arctos syriacus) in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region under climate change scenarios

This study focuses on assessing the current and future habitat suitability of the Endangered Syrian Brown Bear (Ursus arctos syriacus) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Using field-collected occurrence records, environmental data (slope, elevation, climate variables), and Maxent modeling, you generated habitat suitability maps for the present and for 2070 under climate change scenarios (SSP 126 and SSP 585). The results reveal spatial shifts in habitat suitability, highlighting potential climate refugia and habitat loss, and offer insights to inform conservation planning and conflict mitigation for this threatened subspecies.