Application of true skill statistics as a practical method for quantitatively assessing CLIMEX performance

•CLIMEX is a mechanistic SDM tool, but its performance was hard to be measured.•True skill statistics was applied for quantitatively evaluating CLIMEX performance.•CLIMEX performance was evaluated according to regional scale and species records.•True skill statistics was compared with another metric to apply it the CLIMEX.•True skill statistics was differed with the scale, records and classification threshold.