Black bear occurrence data and the sources

Asiatic black bear is a vulnerable species under the IUCN Red List and an umbrella species across the ecosystems in Asia. Here we present results from the first distribution-wide map of Asiatic black bear (<i>Ursus thibetanus</i>) habitat suitability based on high resolution remotely sensed data. We collected 1008 bear presence points between 2005–2022 to train the habitat suitability model. The study area was demarcated by creating a bounding box of 150 km² area around these presence points. To assess the effects of spatial scale, we used land cover variables with higher resolution based on Copernicus product (100 m) and coarser resolution based on MODIS data (250m) to drive the model. Our models projected suitable habitat of 1,697,647 km² (under Model 1) and 1,742,921 km²(under Model 2) for Asiatic black bear across all countries with existing records in IUCN database. Among those countries, we found that China has the maximum habitat (690,310-700,236 km²) while Bangladesh has the least (1,014-1,420 km²) amount of suitable habitat areas for black bears. Additionally, our model projected suitable habitat of 81,274 km²(under Model 1) and 97,907 km²(under Model 2) for Asiatic black bear in countries and regions outside of the IUCN documented range i.e., the Philippines, Oman, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, and southern parts of India. Though black bears are not yet reported in these areas, potentially due to a combination of historic over-hunting and geographic isolation, the highlighted regions show the potential distribution of the species where habitat conditions can support viable populations. These areas could be having as reintroduction sites corridor development in the future. Our study provides new insights into the conservation status of Asiatic black bear and the environmental variables that determine their distribution at a broad scale. We also provide information for further monitoring, establishment of protected areas, transboundary conservation, and enhancement of habitat connectivity for black bears among regions where high value black bear habitat remains.