Comparison of Habitat Selection Models Between Habitat Utilization Intensity and Presence–Absence Data: A Case Study of the Chinese Pangolin

Identifying habitat characteristics is essential for conserving critically endangered species. When quantifying species habitat characteristics, ignoring data types may lead to misunderstandings about species' specific habitat requirements. This study focused on the critically endangered Chinese pangolin in Guangdong Province, China, and divided the study area into 600 m × 600 m grids based on its average home range. The burrow number within each grid was obtained through line transect surveys, with burrow numbers/line transect lengths used as direct indicators of habitat utilization intensity. The relationships with sixteen environmental variables, which could be divided into three categories, including topographic, human disturbance and land cover composition, were quantified using the GAM method. We also converted continuous data into binary data (0, 1), constructed GAMs and compared them with habitat utilization intensity models. Our results indicate that the habitat utilization intensity model identified profile curvature and slope as primary factors, showing a nonlinear response to profile curvature (<i>Edf</i> = 5.610, <i>p</i> = 0.014) and a positive relationship with slope (<i>Edf</i> = 1.000, <i>p</i> = 0.006). The presence-absence model emphasized distance to water (<i>Edf</i> = 1.000, <i>p</i> = 0.014), slope (<i>Edf</i> = 1.709, <i>p</i> = 0.043) and aspect (<i>Edf</i> = 2.000, <i>p</i> = 0.026). The intensity model explained significantly more deviance, captured complex nonlinear relationships and supported higher model complexity without overfitting. This study demonstrates that habitat utilization intensity data provides a more ecologically informative basis for in situ conservation (e.g., identifying core habitats), and the process from habitat selection to habitat utilization should be integrated to reveal species' habitat characteristics.