Morphological and Spatial Characteristics of Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) Burrows in the Protected Semi-Arid Landscape of Saurashtra, Gujarat, India

The Indian Pangolin ( Manis crassicaudata ) is classified as endangered and is an important ecosystem engineer of the ecosystem where it exists; however, there are very few quantitative baseline studies that evaluate its burrow characteristics and habitat selection. This longitudinal study spanned 2024–2026 and included two different types of natural protected areas located in Saurashtra, Gujarat, India: the basaltic Barda Wildlife Sanctuary and alluvial Mitiyala Wildlife Sanctuary. Using Average Nearest Neighbour analysis, we identified evidence of significant clustering for both feeding burrows (Z = -13.76; P < 0.001 in Barda; Z = -9.72; p < 0.001 in Mitiyala) and resting burrows (Z = -3.99; p < 0.001 in Barda; Z = -3.39; p < 0.001 in Mitiyala). Using the proximity of commute distances, we calculated an average foraging commute of 331.03 ± 360.59 m in Mitiyala, suggesting that the pangolin spatially separates locations used for feeding versus resting, likely to reduce the risk of predation. An optimised multi-model ensemble framework (GLM, GAM, RF, MaxEnt) was implemented using 10 environmental covariates to address landscape selection dynamics. The suitability gradient was binarised at an optimised threshold cutoff of 0.431 using Youden’s J criterion. Validating the models showed excellent predictive accuracy (TSS > 0.75, p < 0.01; AUC > 0.90, p < 0.01), identifying land surface temperature and soil texture as the primary determinants of burrow selection. The finding provides fine-scale environmental constraints affecting subterranean ecology and can serve as transferable baseline data for preserving patch-refugia within ecological fragmentation of semi-arid landscapes.