

His cooperation partners are also working on refining the model to examine smaller-scale influences. "In future, we could identify particularly isolated and therefore vulnerable populations that should be hunted sparingly," says the environmental researcher. As with the climate of the ice age, Leugger's models also allow for predictions with future climate scenarios - and could thus indicate in further studies how the chamois react to increasing climate warming. These findings can now be used to study future developments.

This is probably why they very rarely spread beyond these geographical borders. "Chamois apparently avoid flat valley terrain where they might be exposed to their predators such as wolves and lynxes," explains Leugger. In addition, there are geographical hurdles that the animals do not cross - especially large rivers and wide, flat valleys. One of the findings: Chamois migrate only over short distances, mostly spending their lives in the immediate vicinity of their birthplace. This way, Leugger understood more and more about the influences that cause chamois populations to spread. He compared the result of each simulation with the current genetic distribution of the animals. The researcher varied certain parameters of the simulations, such as the average migration speed of the chamois, or he added artificial geographical obstacles. The simulations showed how the chamois increasingly colonised the Alpine region as the climate warmed and the glaciers receded. With noun/verb tables for the different cases and tenses links. In a final step, Leugger used the changing climate conditions to simulate the distribution of chamois populations during the following 20,000 years until today. Learn the translation for insurmountable obstacle in LEOs English German dictionary. This produced a detailed map of the possible distribution of chamois at the end of the last ice age. He then applied these to the climate conditions 20,000 years ago. The researcher trained various machine-learning models with these characteristics.

"Above all, the slope, the temperature and the amount of precipitation influence whether chamois feel comfortable," says Leugger. In a second step, Leugger reconstructed the characteristics of the ideal chamois habitat from the current distribution of chamois and from climate and topography data.
