Study area

Yushu County is located in the central region of the Tibetan Plateau, at the south of the Bayan Har Mountain and the Yangtze River’s headwater area. The county area is 15,116 km² (Fig. 1a). The area has an average elevation of 4506 m (Table 1), and the terrain is complex and towering. Yushu has a classic alpine subarctic climate, with a long winter and short summer. Moreover, it is very cold and dry in the winter and rainy and mild in the summer. June is the rainiest month.

The location of research areas and the distribution of the investigated burrows. a The location of Yushu County in Qinhai of China; b The distribution of investigated hibernation (red) and temporary (green) burrows of marmot in Yushu County

Descriptive statistics of environmental variables used in Maxent ecological niche modeling of burrow site selection by Himalayan marmots. The summer value of LST and NDVI are averages of 3-year values from May 9th to September 30th, and the winter values are averages of 3-year values from 3rd December and 5th March. The meanings of abbreviations are listed in legend of Fig. 2