Pika making hay while the sun shines
The American pika is the smallest member of the rabbit family, landing somewhere between a hamster and a Guinea pig in appearance and size. Unlike most rabbits and hares, their large ears are rounded, bringing to mind nothing so much as Mickey Mouse. Their obligate habitat is high mountain boulder fields at or above tree-line. This makes the region around the 10,947 foot summit of the Beartooth Highway (US 212) the ideal place to look for them. In one particular spot they enjoy the shelter and forage found among sparkly, colorful granite rocks. They eat grasses and other plants and also harvest them to tuck in their dens deep within the rocks to eat, hay-like, during the long, high alpine winters rather than hibernating like so many other animals do to survive the lean months.
When the photographer arrives and sets up, they retreat to crevasses among the boulders, then gradually venture into the open again. Once they conclude the photographer is no threat, they hop around among the rocks, posing momentarily between mouths-full of forage, sometimes coming so close the long telephoto can’t handle it. Their cuteness factor is very high, especially when they make their little squeaky-toy calls.
However, the most important thing to know about pikas is that they are climate change indicator species. As the landscape warms, they need to move to ever-higher, cooler elevations, and if the plants they live on don’t also move to higher ground, they cannot survive. While for the moment they seem to be thriving in the Wyoming-Montana highlands, in some parts of the U.S. they have already disappeared due to rising average temperatures.
Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Custer-Gallatin National Forest
Pika making hay while the sun shines
The American pika is the smallest member of the rabbit family, landing somewhere between a hamster and a Guinea pig in appearance and size. Unlike most rabbits and hares, their large ears are rounded, bringing to mind nothing so much as Mickey Mouse. Their obligate habitat is high mountain boulder fields at or above tree-line. This makes the region around the 10,947 foot summit of the Beartooth Highway (US 212) the ideal place to look for them. In one particular spot they enjoy the shelter and forage found among sparkly, colorful granite rocks. They eat grasses and other plants and also harvest them to tuck in their dens deep within the rocks to eat, hay-like, during the long, high alpine winters rather than hibernating like so many other animals do to survive the lean months.
When the photographer arrives and sets up, they retreat to crevasses among the boulders, then gradually venture into the open again. Once they conclude the photographer is no threat, they hop around among the rocks, posing momentarily between mouths-full of forage, sometimes coming so close the long telephoto can’t handle it. Their cuteness factor is very high, especially when they make their little squeaky-toy calls.
However, the most important thing to know about pikas is that they are climate change indicator species. As the landscape warms, they need to move to ever-higher, cooler elevations, and if the plants they live on don’t also move to higher ground, they cannot survive. While for the moment they seem to be thriving in the Wyoming-Montana highlands, in some parts of the U.S. they have already disappeared due to rising average temperatures.
Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Custer-Gallatin National Forest