For centuries, humans have been intensively using the landscapes in Europe, thus affecting the conservation status of several wildlife species. Many European species have already become extinct, including the European bison (Bison bonasus). The species has been successfully reintroduced to many European countries with extensive conserved forest habitats. Such extensive connected areas of forest habitats, suitable for the European bison, are also found in Slovenia. The main objective of the Master's thesis was to identify the size and connectedness of a suitable habitat in case of the European bison’s reintroduction. With habitat suitability modelling in Maxent, we predicted a potential suitable habitat in Slovenia. We performed the modelling of suitable summer and winter habitats with and without human-induced changes, thus producing eight different models. The model of a suitable summer habitat with human presence yielded the most reliable result. According to this model, the most suitable habitat is in the area of Nanos and Hrušica, Trnovski gozd and Banjšice, Javorniki and Snežnik, as well as the hills of Ribnica and Kočevje. The patches of a suitable habitat are not well connected to each other and are mainly separated by traffic infrastructure. The implementation of efficient mitigation measures and species management would be necessary for successful reintroduction and herd migration between habitat patches. Habitat suitability modelling with Maxent yields satisfactory predictions despite insufficient input data. To improve the results, we recommend using better input data and another method for result comparison. Besides, we recommend assessing the results from the aspect of other wildlife species living in the area.
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