Mongolian marmot burrow influences an occupancy of Isabelline wheatear

The physical modification of habitat by the rodents can create patches with altered species richness relative to adjacent, unmodified habitats. The majority of studies found a positive correlation between engineering patches and animal species richness/diversity/abundance. In this paper, we show occupancy of wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina) in engineering patches created by Mongolian marmot (Marmota sibirica) and no engineering in different habitat types of the arid steppe ecosystem. We surveyed 123 sites for Isabelline wheatear in Hustai National Park, Mongolia in 2016. We used a model selection approach to evaluate the effect of marmot burrows and other potential variables on occupancy probability. We detected Isabelline wheatear in 46.34% of the surveys (171 of 369). Our top model indicated that occupancy was strongly influenced by marmot burrows. The estimated wheatear occupancy was 0.95 at a burrow site and 0.64 at a non-burrow site. Detection was a function of temperature and highest around 24.6 ºC. Our results indicate that Isabelline wheatear distribution is strongly influenced by marmots as burrows presumably provide it with important habitat resources. The loss of marmots will probably have direct effects on the distribution of the breeding bird and the ecosystem processes they support. Our study provides one of the few examples of the role of marmots in influencing breeding birds and supports the notion of marmots as a keystone species.