Brief by Allen Best
Wildlife – April 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Missing Pikas
Pikas are disappearing from the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada in what researchers say is the first link between global warming and the widespread disappearance of entire animal populations.
A study published in the Journal of Mammalogy says this may be an “early signal” of what alpine and subalpine environments throughout the world will face if temperatures continue to rise as predicted. Erik Beever, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist, was the lead author.
In the study, reports the Los Angeles Times (Feb. 27), pikas were no longer found in 7 of 25 sites where they once had been plentiful early in the 20th century. The sites that lost pikas were on average drier and warmer and at lower latitudes than sites where the animals remained. Cattle grazing and proximity to roads had some impact on the animals, but warmer and drier conditions in recent decades were a major factor in their disappearance, said Beever.
Pikas are related to rabbits, and if you think of a small cottontail with tiny ears and no tail, you’ve got the idea. Ochotonoa princeps is also known as the cony, hyrax, chief hare, or rock rabbit. There are three subspecies in Colorado: O.p. figginsi in the Elk and Park ranges; O.p. incana in the Sangres; and O.p. saxtilis in the Front, San Juan, and Sawatch ranges.
Pikas live on talus slopes above 10,000 feet, and feed mostly on grasses. They do not hibernate, although they are less active in the winter. One way they get through the winter is by putting up hay in the summer — starting in mid-July, they collect vegetation and store it under overhanging rocks.