“…We aimed to analyse faecal pellets using metabarcoding to identify the plants in the diet of the Royle's pika and examine the effects of talus characteristics, topography and plant richness; abundance; and seasonal dynamics (pre‐ and postmonsoon) on diet, across five sites in the western Himalaya, India. Food availability (plant species’ presence and abundance; Huntly, Smith, & Ivins, ; Dearing, , ; Wilkening et al., ; Bhattacharyya et al., , 2014a; Bhattacharyya & Ray, ), habitat topography (elevation, slope, aspect; Walker, Halfpenny, Walker, & Wessman, ; Deems, Birkeland, & Hansen, ; Wilkening et al., ; Rodhouse et al., ; Gurung et al., ) and predation risk (rock cover, crevice depth, distance to the nearest area of talus; Calkins, Beever, Boykin, Frey, & Andersen, ; Bhattacharyya et al., ,b; Castillo, Epps, Davis, & Cushman, ; Bhattacharyya et al., ) significantly impact the foraging ecology of the Royle's pika and potentially influence access to nutritive plants, and thereby affect individual fitness (Bhattacharyya, ). For talus‐dwelling Ochotona spp., talus size (area) and connectivity between talus are known to influence the habitat occupancy (Franken & Hik, ).…”