Habitat selection of Meriones hurrianae in the Thar Desert: Integrating land cover, shrubs, and predators

Abstract

Understanding the ecological and anthropogenic drivers of habitat selection in native species is critical for biodiversity conservation, particularly in arid ecosystems experiencing rapid land use change. We investigated the burrow density and occurrence of the Indian desert gerbil in the Thar Desert. Factor analysis of mixed data and Akaike information criterion indicated that habitat use by this rodent is structured by land cover, availability of food and shelter-providing native shrubs, and predator presence. Grazing activity is positively associated with burrow density but did not significantly influence gerbil presence. Zero-inflated Poisson and resource selection function revealed that gerbils are strongly associated with mixed vegetation land cover, shrubland habitats, and agricultural land with native vegetation. Contrary to expectations, predator presence was positively correlated with both burrow density and gerbil occurrence. This pattern likely suggests the importance of gerbils as a key prey for desert predators, as well as the spatial confinement of native fauna within remnant patches of viable habitats. These findings emphasize prioritizing the conservation of fragmented habitats within transformed landscapes and the preservation of native vegetation. Our study identifies the Indian desert gerbil as a potential indicator species of suitable habitats within the degraded Thar Desert landscape. It further highlights the significance of selecting and modeling appropriate ground covariates to identify critical ecological interactions shaping species distributions in dryland ecosystems subject to anthropogenic land conversion.