( Read about the Asian plateau pika’s unique way of surviving the winter. Instead of hibernating to get through the winter, pikas take cover under the rocky debris, relying on the insulation of heavy winter snowpack to keep their dens stable and toasty. But they can live at lower elevations where the local climate is cool enough in summer and warm enough in winter. Pikas are most commonly found in high-alpine areas up to 14,000 feet above sea level. “We have this army of people going out and observing, and they see amazing things that I had never seen before.” Indicators of climate change Ray has ventured into one of her pika field sites in Montana, north of Yellowstone National Park, every summer for 33 years. From July to September, she spends up to 20 days a month studying pikas at remote field sites in the Colorado and Montana Rockies. Ray has been the scientific advisor for the Colorado Pika Project, previously known as the Front Range Pika Project, since it began in 2010. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Įxtra eyes and ears on the ground in many different places at different times provides invaluable information about pikas, their lifestyle, and their behavior, says Chris Ray, a population biologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Afterward, the pika patrollers go into the field at least once each summer on anything from easy or moderate hikes to 17-mile roundtrip excursions in the backcountry. #Mountain pika full#They go through a full day of training to learn complex surveying methods. This season, more than 400 of these volunteers are venturing out and up to 72 sites high in the Colorado Rockies. The Colorado Pika Project relies on a growing contingent of volunteers known as the “ Pika Patrol,” who help survey and collect data about pikas throughout the summer. “So we are really looking to fill that gap for the southern Rockies, for Colorado,” Wells says. In 2010, pikas were considered for federal endangered species protection, but the Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the petition-in part because researchers didn’t have enough data about them across their full range. Because pikas are so physiologically fine-tuned to their way of life and talus habitats, they’re especially vulnerable to the effects of a warming climate, making them an indicator for the advancement of climate change. The project’s mission is to document and collect key information about pikas and their habitat, and to use that information to better understand how climate change could be threatening the survival of certain pika populations. “They look like little dumplings, but they’re actually really industrious, hard-working animals,” says Alex Wells, the community science coordinator at the Denver Zoo and co-director of the Colorado Pika Project, a partnership between the zoo and Rocky Mountain Wild, a Denver-based nonprofit. If they don’t see them, they likely hear their high-pitched calls. Hikers above the tree line often see the diminutive creatures busily dashing around slopes of rocky debris called taluses. But the charismatic rabbit-relative is integral to the high-alpine landscapes of the American West. Scientists say the animal's decline may signal problems for other species, from butterflies and birds to large mammals.A critter the size and shape of a furry russet potato, with Mickey Mouse ears, and no tail, the American pika might not be your standard “iconic” species. In the Great Basin-the arid region between the Rocky Mountains and California's Sierra Nevada-pikas already are disappearing. Trapped at the top, alpine wildlife is vulnerable to several of climate change's damaging effects, including vegetation changes, the invasion of new predators and pests, reduced winter snowpack, and increases in extreme weather events. Unlike other mountain species that can move to higher altitudes in warming climates, pikas live so high on the mountain that there is no where for them to go. The pika has adapted to life in areas that rarely get above freezing and can overheat and die when exposed to temperatures as mild as 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Pikas live in high mountain ecosystems that are cool and moist. Without protection and help, American pikas could be the first species to go extinct due to climate change. Despite their dire situation, the American pika is not federally listed under in the Endangered Species Act. Pikas have already disappeared from more than one-third of their previously known habitat in Oregon and Nevada. American pikas are suffering because climate change has brought higher temperatures to their western mountain homes. But today the American pika has good grounds to compete with the polar bear for this unwanted honor. For years the polar bear has been the symbol of the climate change movement.
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