Least-cost habitat linkages for American black bear, Rafinesque's big-eared bat, and timber rattlesnake.

This data set contains 3 shapefiles and associated files that map
linkages, which are least-cost paths between adjacent habitat cores for
three wildlife species in the Southeastern U.S. The species are: the
American black bear (Ursus americanus), Rafinesque's big-eared bat
(Corynorhinus rafinesquii), and Timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). We
mapped habitat cores based on c. 2006 land cover, then used LinkageMapper
software to identify least-cost paths between them, and buffered the
least-cost paths by 2.5 km using ArcGIS, for a total width of 5 km. The
buffered least-cost paths are the linkages provided here. The attribute
tables for these shapefiles contain fields that describe the importance of
each linkage to the overall habitat connectivity network, contemporary and
future average modeled habitat suitability within the linkage, change in
average proportion suitable, percent of urban land within the linkage,
percent of linkage that is protected for conservation, and categorical
values for climate threat, whether the linkage was designated as highly
important, protection status, and future urbanization threat.