Distribution and influencing factors of suitable habitats for wild yaks on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau within the context of national parks

As a flagship species endemic to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the habitat protection of the wild yak (Bos mutus) is crucial for maintaining the integrity of alpine ecosystems and biodiversity. This study focuses on the spatial pattern of potential suitable habitats for wild yaks in the context of national park development, and systematically reveals the influence mechanisms of natural and anthropogenic factors on their distribution. The research integrates the MaxEnt species distribution model with GIS spatial analysis technology, and utilized 291 occurrence data points, key environmental variables (temperature, precipitation, snow cover days, etc.), and high-resolution human activity intensity data to simulate the habitat suitability for wild yaks. The results show that the MaxEnt model has excellent prediction accuracy (AUC=0.904). The average annual snow cover days (Scd) are the primary environmental factor influencing the distribution of suitable habitats (contribution rate of 46.4%), followed by precipitation seasonality (bio15) and precipitation in the wettest quarter (bio16). The evaluation of coordination degree reveals significant spatial divergence between human activities and suitable habitats for wild yaks: highly coordinated areas (accounting for 21%) are widely distributed in the northwest of the plateau (such as the Qiangtang Plateau), while uncoordinated areas (44%) are densely located at the northeastern, eastern, and southern edges of the plateau, markedly overlapping with hotspots of human activities such as grazing and infrastructure development. This suggests that human activities are key driving factors leading to human-wildlife conflicts. This study further confirms that the core suitable habitats for wild yaks align closely with the layout of national parks, validating the scientific nature of their planning. Based on the assessment of coordination, precise management recommendations for national parks are proposed. At the planning level, protection boundaries and functional zoning should be optimized based on the coordination degree, and highly coordinated areas should be included into the core protection zones. In management practice, efforts should focus on constructing ecological corridors in uncoordinated areas, reasonably regulating the layout of infrastructure, and actively promoting community co-management mechanisms to effectively alleviate human-animal conflicts. The findings provide scientific support for the construction of a habitat protection network for wild yaks with national parks as the main body.