Modeling habitat suitability to predict the potential distribution of the Kelung Cat Snake Boiga kraepelini Steineger, 1902

Predictive species distribution modeling is a valuable tool for decision-making in different fundamental and applied fields of study and conservation of biological diversity. Predictive models of species distribution expected to be useful for understanding of actual distribution of rare and cryptic species, including many snake species. This study employs one recently proposed modeling technique, MAXENT (http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~schapire/maxent) to investigate the geographic distribution pattern of Square-headed Cat Snake, or Kelung Cat Snake, Boiga kraepelini Stejneger, 1902. Constructed model identified dissemination of B. kraepelini enough performance: for Vietnam’s part of distribution range AUC = 0.945 with dispersion 0.031; for Taiwan’s part of distribution range AUC = 0.960 with dispersion 0.002; for entire distribution range AUC = 0.996 with dispersion 0.001. According to the map constructed, the most suitable habitats of B. kraepelini in Taiwan are located throughout the island except high elevation in the central mountain regions, and extreme north-western coastal regions. The most suitable habitats in continental part are located in northern and central Vietnam and bordering regions of Laos; predictive potential distribution in continental part was also revealed in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian and Guizhou provinces.