Predicted Terrestrial Vertebrate Species Distributions for Wyoming

The purpose of the vertebrate species maps developed for gap analysis is to
provide more precise information about the current distribution of individual
native species within their general ranges than is generally available from
published range maps. Range maps which rely only on the location of specimens
do not include information on the ecological conditions that favor the presence
of the species. Habitat features, such as vegetation, can enhance traditional
approaches despite some limitations (Scott et al. 1993). Using both point
locality records and habitat conditions, these predicted distributions provide
better estimates about the actual amount of habitat area and the nature of its
configuration.

Besides gap analysis, the predicted terrestrial vertebrate species
distributions may be used to answer a wide variety of management, planning, and
research questions relating to individual species or groups of species.

This dataset contains the predicted distributions of 445 terrestrial vertebrate
species in Wyoming, created in a GIS modeling process using species habitat
assocation rules in combination with species geographic range. Because of the
large size of this dataset, it is distributed in two ways (complete,
statewide), and tiled into 56 1:100,000-scale quadrangles units which are small
enough to be utilized in the PC Arc/Info or ArcView environment.