Latest American Pika Stories
Findings in contrast to recent study showing pika declines in the Great Basin American pikas, the chirpy, potato-sized denizens of rocky debris in mountain ranges and high plateaus in western North America, are holding their own in the Southern Rocky Mountains, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study. Led by CU-Boulder doctoral student Liesl Erb, the study team assessed 69 historical sites known to host pikas in a swath of the Southern Rockies ranging from southern Wyoming...
Latest American Pika Reference Libraries
The Northern Pika, Ochotona hyperborea, is a species of pika found across northern Asia, from the Ural Mountains to northern Japan and south through Mongolia, Manchuria, and northern Korea. There are several subspecies of this pika. An adult Northern Pika has a body length of 5 to 7.33 inches, and a tail less than a half inch. The pika sheds its fur twice annually, bearing a reddish-brown coat in the summer and grayish-brown in the winter.
The American Pika (Ochotona princeps) is a diurnal(active during day and sleeps at night) species of pika. It is found in the mountains of western North America. They are usually in boulder fields at or above tree line. A recent news article suggests that species populations are declining due to various factors. They are very sensitive to high temperatures. Pikas are considered to be one of the best early warning systems for detecting global warming in the western United States.
