Abstract: Habitat suitability assessment can identify the areas suitable for wildlife survival, revealing the relationship between wildlife and habitat, and thus could provide technical support for conserving rare and endangered wildlife. The tufted deer (Elaphodus cephalophus) is widely distributed in southern China and classified as a second-level key protected wildlife species in the country. To investigate the potential habitat suitability of tufted deer in Hunan Province, we analyzed 177 distribution points captured by infrared cameras. A MaxEnt model was constructed based on 23 environmental factors, including climate, topography, and vegetation type. The model was optimized using the EMNeval package in R software and then was used to analyze the distribution status of suitable habitats for tufted deer and the main environmental influencing factors. The results showed that the average AUC value of the training set was 0.967, indicating excellent performance in prediction. The main environmental factors influencing the habitat suitability of tufted deer in Hunan Province include altitude (Alt), monthly mean diurnal range (Bio02), vegetation type (Veg), precipitation seasonality (Bio15), isothermality (Bio03), and mean temperature of the driest quarter (Bio09), with a total contribution of 73.3%. The potential suitable habitats for tufted deer in Hunan Province are mainly distributed in the Wuling Mountains, Xuefeng Mountains, and Nanling Mountains, covering a total area of 61931.57 km² or 29.24% of the province’s land area. The highly suitable habitat area is 29914.46 km², and the moderately suitable habitat area is 32017.11 km². To enhance the conservation and management of tufted deer population throughout Hunan Province, it is therefore essential to strengthen monitoring efforts and to prioritize the ecological protection of habitats where small populations are located.

Key words: tufted deer, MaxEnt model, distribution prediction, habitat suitability assessment, Hunan Province