Ecological niche models (ENM) have become a popular tool to define and predict the “ecological niche” of a species. The ENMs have been extensively used in locating rare and threatened species and in rationalizing the choice of habitats for species re-introduction. An implicit assumption of the ENMs is that the predicted ecological niche of a species actually reflects the adaptive landscape of the species. Thus in sites predicted to be highly suitable, species would have maximum fitness compared to in sites predicted to be poorly suitable. In this talk I shall discuss results of some recent experiments conducted in our lab that have attempted to evaluate this assumption.