Pika's domain
A pika surveys its realm while chewing a Mertensia leaf at 13,000+ feet on the south side of Mount Bierstadt, Colorado. They actually rip around quite fast collecting forage for their hay piles under the rocks, but my blood oxygen levels were so low that I needed the rest I got waiting out their camera evading tactics. Their stored hay piles serve a few different purposes -- protecting some food from burial in early season snows, and detoxifying some of the glandular plants through oxidation and evaporation of terpenoid components. Their name is a Russian origin onomatopoeia after the squeeking sounds they make from the rocks -- "peek-a."
The tundra communities and low temperatures these mammals rely on are under some danger from global warming. Temperatures in the high 70's for a few hours will kill them if they can't find refuge. Many populations of American pika have disappeared across the west and where they persist they are actively migrating up slope (some places over a 100 meters / decade). Problem is that as they migrate upwards the mountain habitat gets smaller and smaller.
Pikas are distant relatives of rabbits and hares. Some 30 species are found across North America, Asia, and Eastern Europe -- with much of the diversity concentrated in the Himalayas and mountains and plateaus to it's immediate north. The Sardinian pika in Italy was considered a delicacy up to its extinction in the 1800s.
Pika's domain
A pika surveys its realm while chewing a Mertensia leaf at 13,000+ feet on the south side of Mount Bierstadt, Colorado. They actually rip around quite fast collecting forage for their hay piles under the rocks, but my blood oxygen levels were so low that I needed the rest I got waiting out their camera evading tactics. Their stored hay piles serve a few different purposes -- protecting some food from burial in early season snows, and detoxifying some of the glandular plants through oxidation and evaporation of terpenoid components. Their name is a Russian origin onomatopoeia after the squeeking sounds they make from the rocks -- "peek-a."
The tundra communities and low temperatures these mammals rely on are under some danger from global warming. Temperatures in the high 70's for a few hours will kill them if they can't find refuge. Many populations of American pika have disappeared across the west and where they persist they are actively migrating up slope (some places over a 100 meters / decade). Problem is that as they migrate upwards the mountain habitat gets smaller and smaller.
Pikas are distant relatives of rabbits and hares. Some 30 species are found across North America, Asia, and Eastern Europe -- with much of the diversity concentrated in the Himalayas and mountains and plateaus to it's immediate north. The Sardinian pika in Italy was considered a delicacy up to its extinction in the 1800s.