The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B4. Beijing 2008 
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At present, the most accurate distribution map of the target spe 
cies has a resolution of 2 by 2.5 km (Ohba, 2002). This study 
aims to create distribution maps with a resolution of 90 by 90 m, 
or at best 30 by 30 m. The area of interest is the Fuji and Tan- 
zawa regions located in the central part of Japan’s main island. 
The administrative boundaries of Kanagawa Prefecture and 
Shizuoka Prefecture have been selected as the study area. The 
Asiatic black bear and the Japanese serow were identified as the 
target species. 
2. METHODOLOGY 
2.1 Study area 
The following criteria were used in order to select an appropri 
ate area for the study: 
• Known fragmentation of habitats 
• Variation in landscapes 
• High biodiversity 
• Presence of endemic species 
The area of interest is the ‘Fuji region’, part of the Fuji- 
Hakone-Izu National Park and the ‘Tanzawa region’, Japan. 
The Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park covers an area of 121,851 
ha, located in four prefectures and consisting of Mt. Fuji (3776 
m), Hakone, Izu Peninsula and the Izu Island chain. In the park 
various types of volcanoes occur, as the park crosses the Fuji 
volcanic belt from the Pacific Ocean to the central part of the 
Main Island. Vegetation varies from the warm-temperature 
vegetation zone on the Izu Island chain to the Alperstein zone 
of Mt. Fuji. The park contains diverse habitats for mammals 
and bird species. The Tanzawa region is a mountainous area 
which consists of Hirugatake (1673 m), Mt. Tanzawa, Sagami 
oyama and Togadake. It cuts across three prefectures: Kana 
gawa, Yamanashi, and Shizuoka, and is designated as a Quasi- 
National Park. 
The selected areas are Mt. Fuji and the Tanzawa region. These 
regions are geographically not far apart. However, because of 
the recent urbanization and new road constructions, the ex 
change of genes between the local populations of big mammals, 
especially Asiatic black bear, in these regions has almost ceased 
(Japanese Mammals Society, 1997). The area of the National 
Park is considered an appropriate size for large mammal species. 
The park contains various landscapes and is characterized by a 
very high biodiversity including the occurrence of a number of 
endemic species. The study area is located between 3,830,925 
to 3,949,185N and 177,284 to 390,854E in a datum of WGS 
1984 and projection of UTM Zone North 54. 
2.2 Target species 
2.2.1 Selection of target species 
In order to select target species the method of the usage of a 
check list was chosen with the following criteria: 
• Their known distribution must be within the study area 
• The size of the habitats of a target species should be me 
dium or large (Dawson, 1994) 
• Target species should be endangered, umbrella, keystone, 
endemic (Jongman et al., 2004), or ‘natural monument’ 
• Secondary data sources concerning distribution of species 
are available 
‘Natural monuments’ are based on the legal designation for 
highly valued animals, plants, or minerals. The forth criterion is 
established based on consideration of time, human and financial 
resources available for this study. 
Based on the criteria established above, the Asiatic black bear 
and Japanese serow were identified as the target species among 
the Japanese mammal species. 
In Japan, 19 local populations of the Asiatic black bear (Japan 
Wildlife Research Center, 1992) and 40 local populations of 
Japanese serow (Japan Wildlife Research Center, 1985) are rec 
ognized, of which three local populations are considered to ex 
ist for both species in our study area: Fuji, Tanzawa and South 
Alps. The mainstream of the current studies has focus on habi 
tat and food analysis for both species (Deguchi et al., 2002; 
Hashimoto et al., 2003; Huygens et al., 2003), thus very little is 
known about the distribution within the sites. Yamaguchi et al. 
(1998) compiled the point observations of Japanese serow in 
Tanzawa region. Ohba (2002) mapped serow’s distribution in a 
sampling grid of 5 by 5 km in Shizuoka Prefecture based on 
questionnaires. Mochizuki et al. (2005) mapped bear’s distri 
bution in sampling grid of 2 km by 2.5 km in Fuji local popula 
tion based on point observation of field signs and mapped point 
localities of four years of tracked movements of 14 individual 
bears. To our knowledge, no study attempted to model these 
species probabilities of occurrence by environmental predictors 
in Japan. 
2.2.2 Asiatic black bear 
The Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) inhabits 
the islands of Honshu and Shikoku in Japan. The Asiatic black 
bear is a threatened species - assessed as “vulnerable” - accord 
ing to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is also well- 
known as an umbrella species, which is defined by Fleishman et 
al. (2000) as a “species whose conservation confers a protective 
umbrella to numerous co-occurring species”. 
In Japan, the habitat of the local populations has been frag 
mented by deforestation because of development of new infra 
structure. Especially, the Tanzawa local population of Asiatic 
black bear is ranked as “a local population which should be pro 
tected” because of its small population size (Japanese Mammals 
Society, 1997). A project, which aims to create a new linkage 
between the local populations of Tanzawa and Fuji regions, is 
in progress (Kanagawa Prefectual Museum of Natural History, 
2003). According to observations in 1995 and 1999 by Huygens 
et al. (2003) bears ate oak (Quercus spp.) acorns from feeding 
observations in the previous fall and dwarf bamboo (Sasa spp.) 
leaves and shoots in spring; succulent plants and soft mast, es 
pecially the Japanese cluster cherry (Prunus grayana) in sum 
mer; and hard mast, especially oak acorns, in fall. Bears ate in 
sects in all seasons, with a peak in summer, and also ate 
Japanese serow (Naemorhedus crispus) on at least 6 occasions. 
In summer, bears that moved to alpine elevations relied on suc 
culent plants; bears that remained at lower elevations relied on 
soft mast. In fall, all bears moved to hard-mast producing areas 
in broad-leaved forests at lower elevations in the montane zone. 
Montane broadleaved forests are recognized as important habi 
tats for Asiatic black bears’ survival (Huygens et al., 2003; 
Kanagawa Prefectual Museum of Natural History, 2003). 
2.2.3 Japanese serow 
The Japanese serow {Naemorhedus crispus) is an endemic un 
gulate, found in the montane regions of Honshu, Shikoku and 
Kyushu. It is also designated as a Japanese ‘natural monument’, 
for which only 2 species are nominated among mammals.