Field surveys were conducted in September 2006 at Narati (China) and September 2014 at Sary Mogul (Kyrgyzstan) using trapping and transect methods. See dat@osu for general metadata and Marston et al. (2022), cited below (submitted) for sampling details. Narati_transect.csv : transects of over 41 km were surveyed in grassland areas between 1509-3335 m altitude. Each row corresponds to an approximatively 130 m segment, divided into 20 intervals of ten paces. Activity indicators identifiable to species or genus level (including foraging corridors, ground holes, earth tumuli and small mammal faeces) were recorded. The abundance index is the number of intervals where presence indicators were observed divided by the number of intervals walked (n = 20). The geographical coordinates are the centroïd of each segment. Narati_traplines_rd.txt: small mammal relative densities obtained using standard trapping as described in Marston et al. (2022). Sary_Mogul_transect.csv: For each transect, 20 intervals of 10 paces were surveyed with activity indicators identifiable to species or genus level (including foraging corridors, ground holes, earth tumuli and small mammal faeces) recorded. Relative density scores of small mammal presence (the number of intervals where presence indicators were observed) were produced for each species for each transect. In Sary Mogul, field surveys comprised 37 transects as described in Marston and Giraudoux (2019) Sary_Mogul_traplines_rd.txt: small mammal relative densities obtained using standard trapping as described in Marston et al. (2022).

{"references": ["Marston CG, Raoul F, Rowland C, Qu\u00e9r\u00e9 JP, Feng XH, Lin RY, Giraudoux P 2023 Mapping small mammal optimal habitats using satellite-derived proxy variables and species distribution model. PLoS One. In pres"]}