The potential distribution of wintering and breeding populations of Asian Houbara Chlamydotis macqueenii in Iran DAVOOD PAKNIAT 1 , MAHMOUD-REZA HEMAMI 1* , GILDA SHAHNASERI 1 , SAEIDEH MALEKI 2 , MOHAMMAD-ALI ADIBI 3 , MOHAMMAD REZA BESMELI 4 , MOHAMMAD EBRAHIM SEHATISABET 5 , HOSSEIN ABBASIAN 6 , HOSSEIN AKBARI 7 and MAHBOOBEH TOHIDI 8 1 Department of Natural Resources,Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran. 2 Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources, Zabol University, Zabol, Iran. 3 Semnan Provincial Office of the Department of the Environment, Semnan, Iran. 4 South Khorasan Provincial Office of the Department of the Environment, South Khorasan, Iran. 5 Kerman Provincial Office of the Department of the Environment, Kerman, Iran. 6 Yazd Provincial Office of the Department of the Environment, Yazd, Iran. 7 Isfahan Provincial Office of the Department of the Environment, Isfahan, Iran. 8 Technical expert of birds, Department of the Environment, Tehran, Iran. *Author for correspondence; email: mrhemami@cc.iut.ac.ir (Received 21 October 2019; revision accepted 06 February 2020) Summary Asian Houbara Chlamydotis macqueenii is a vulnerable flagship species specific to steppe, desert and semi-desert habitats of the Middle East and Central Asia. Iran provides a critical corridor in the middle of Asian Houbara’s migratory route and also hosts a relatively large proportion of winter- ing and breeding populations. The aim of this study was to assess the distribution and habitat suitability of both wintering and breeding populations of Asian Houbara in Iran and evaluate the effectiveness of the existing protected area network for long-term protection of the species. For this purpose, 644 occurrence points for wintering and 216 points for breeding birds were collected from 17 Iranian provinces during 2015 to 2017. We then used a consensus species distribution modelling (SDM) approach using 11 uncorrelated environmental variables to explore the distribution of Asian Houbara habitats. Results showed that climatic and topographic variations have the most significant influence on the regional-scale distribution of Asian Houbara. Of the suitable habitats recognised for the wintering and breeding populations, 40.6% and 29.6% respectively overlapped with the extent of the protected network. A high level of spatial niche similarity (78%) was observed between wintering and breeding populations. The central, eastern and south-central Iranian semi-arid regions and desert landscapes hosted the majority of both wintering and breeding houbara occurrences. Results of this study could be used for adopting direct management planning and raising the protection level of important no-hunting areas. Keywords: Species distribution modelling, conservation planning, protected areas, arid ecosystems. Bird Conservation International (2020), page 1 of 15. © BirdLife International 2020 doi:10.1017/S0959270920000167