Habitat Suitability Distribution Analysis in Mingxi County
The ensemble model delineated the habitat suitability for Manis pentadactyla in Mingxi County into distinct categories: unsuitable region, encompassing 531 km² or 31% of the total study area; lowly suitable region extending across 890 km², representing approximately 51%; moderately suitable region covering 260 km², or 15%; and highly suitable region, the most critical yet scarce, comprising 49 km², accounting for 3% of the total area. Notably, within the confines of the nature reserve, habitats of highly suitable region constituted a significant 52% (as depicted in Table 3). The spatial analysis revealed a concentration of moderate to high suitability habitats predominantly in the northwestern regions, including Fengxi Township, Xiafang Township, and the eastern sector of Xiayang Township (Figure 3A). A comprehensive ranking of the county’s 89 administrative villages was also conducted (Figure 3B), with a detailed exposition of the top nine villages provided in Table 3. We conducted field surveys in the nine administrative villages, all of which exhibited distributions of pangolin burrows (results presented in Figure S3).