DETECTION PROBABILITY OF Leiolepis guentherpetersi IN COASTAL SANDY AREAS OF PHU LOC DISTRICT, THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE, CENTRAL VIETNAM

Abstract

Peter’s Butterfly Lizard (Leiolepis guentherpetersi) is an endemic species of Vietnam with a narrow distribution. However, no information related to detection probability and site occupancy of this species in Vietnam was published. We monitored Leiolepis guentherpetersi in the coastal sandy areas of Phu Loc District, Thua Thien Hue Province through nine surveys at 50 sites from September to December 2017. We used the PRESENCE 12.10 software to analyze the data. The results showed that the detection probability of L. guentherpetersi, when combined with environmental factors, was 0.39, which was higher than the probability of naive detection of 0.34. The total AIC (Akaike’s Information Criteria) weight GB (near sea ecosystem) was 86% while the total AIC weight XB (ecosystem far from the sea) was only 14%; the AIC weight M (rainfall) was 99.41% while the total AIC weight N (temperature) was 62.31% and the total AIC weight DA (humidity) was 27.20%. This shows that the probability of detecting L. Guentherpetersi is influenced by both site covariates (near the sea or far from the sea) and sample covariates (temperature, humidity, and rainfall). It was found that the near sea ecosystem is the best habitat for L. guentherpetersi, and rainfall is the sample covariate that has the greatest influence on the probability of detecting this species in the coastal sandy areas of Phu Loc District.