Table 1.

List of variables used in the model development for argali populations in eastern Tajikistan. Climate variable names and descriptions are based on WorldClim (Hijmans et al., 2005). An asterisk (*) denotes final variables selected by our algorithms in modeling the argali habitat

Predictor	Description	Unit
Climate
Bioclim 1*	Annual mean temperature	°C
Bioclim 2*	Mean diurnal range	°C
Bioclim 3*	Isothermality	°C
Bioclim 4*	Temperature seasonality	°C
Bioclim 5	Maximum temperature of the warmest month	°C
Bioclim 6	Minimum temperature of the coldest month	°C
Bioclim 7	Temperature annual range	°C
Bioclim 8	Mean temperature of wettest quarter	°C
Bioclim 9*	Mean temperature of driest quarter	°C
Bioclim 10	Mean temperature of warmest quarter	°C
Bioclim 11	Mean temperature of coldest quarter	°C
Bioclim 12	Annual precipitation	°C
Bioclim 13	Precipitation of wettest month	°C
Bioclim 14	Precipitation of driest month	°C
Bioclim 15*	Precipitation seasonality	°C
Bioclim 16	Precipitation of wettest quarter	°C
Bioclim 17	Precipitation of driest quarter	°C
Bioclim 18*	Precipitation of warmest quarter	°C
Bioclim 19	Precipitation of coldest quarter	°C
Topographic Feature
DEM	Digital elevation model	m
TRI (terrain ruggedness)*	Captured the difficulty of the landscape terrain $\sqrt{\text{Abs}({(\%\text{Max})}^2-{(\%\text{Min})}^2)}$
Aspect*	Derived from DEM
Slope*	Derived from DEM	%
Vegetation cover*	Vegetation cover derived from the Global Land Cover 2000 project
Sparse cover*	Sparse vegetation cover derived from the Global Land Cover 2000 project
Distance to escape terrain*	Provides continuous distance from a defined slope of ≥30°	m
Distance to riparian areas*	Provides continuous distance from identified riparian areas	m