Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 2018, 6, 264-276 http://www.scirp.org/journal/gep ISSN Online: 2327-4344 ISSN Print: 2327-4336 DOI: 10.4236/gep.2018.64016 Apr. 16, 2018 264 Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection Ecological Niche Modeling of Zebra Species within Laikipia County, Kenya Teddy Simon Mwangi, Hunja Waithaka, Mark Boitt Department of Geomatic Engineering and GIS, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Juja, Kenya Abstract Wildlife conservation is essential, especially for countries like Kenya which rely on tourism as a major earner of foreign exchange. Conservation of species with minimal ecological information such as Grevy’s zebra, though a chal- lenge, is critical to enable the future survival of such species. Grevy’s and Plains zebra have been classified as endangered and near-threatened by Inter- national Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) respectively, with Grevy’s zebra found mostly in Northern Kenya and Ethi- opia. This has been due to habitat degradation from livestock grazing, local hunting and development of resorts. Six prediction variables i.e. rainfall, tem- perature, land use, population, NDVI and cattle occurrence were used in Maxent algorithm to produce a habitat prediction map for both species. Both prediction maps had an AUC > 0.75, which is adequate for conservation plan- ning. Niche similarity based on Warren’s I index (I = 0.78) indicates that both zebra species are identical based on their occupied niche environments, sug- gesting that similar conversation strategies can be adopted for both species. Keywords Grevy’s Zebra, Maxent, Niche Similarity 1. Introduction Global tourism has experienced continued growth, accompanied with deepening diversification, to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world, contributing 10.2% of global GDP in 2016. In Kenya, it contributed 9.8% of Kenya’s GDP in 2016, accounting for 9.2% of total employment in Kenya [1]. Tourism in Kenya is mainly wildlife-based, with the big five large mammals (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard) being the main source of tourism sa- tisfaction and revenue [2]. However, tourist’s preference on the big five has led How to cite this paper: Mwangi, T.S., Waithaka, H. and Boitt, M. (2018) Ecologi- cal Niche Modeling of Zebra Species within Laikipia County, Kenya. Journal of Geos- cience and Environment Protection, 6, 264-276. https://doi.org/10.4236/gep.2018.64016 Received: February 23, 2018 Accepted: April 13, 2018 Published: April 16, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access