Pika (genus Ochotona)

MammalLagomorphMountain

Overview

Pikas are small, round-bodied mammals with short rounded ears, no visible tail, and a high-pitched call. They look like rodents but are not: pikas are lagomorphs, the same order as rabbits and hares, and form its second family, the Ochotonidae.

Around thirty species occupy cold environments across Asia and western North America. Broadly they fall into two groups: rock-dwelling pikas that live in talus — the loose scree at the foot of cliffs — and burrowing pikas of open steppe and meadow.

Pikas do not hibernate. Instead they spend the short growing season cutting vegetation and drying it into stores known as haypiles, which they eat through the winter beneath the snow.

Habitat & Range

Pikas live in cold, often high-elevation habitats: alpine talus slopes and boulder fields, mountain meadows, and the steppe and plateau grasslands of Central Asia. Rock-dwelling species shelter in the spaces between boulders, while burrowing species dig their own tunnel systems in open ground. Many pikas are poorly tolerant of heat, which ties them to cool microclimates.

Diet

Pikas are herbivores, eating grasses, sedges, forbs, mosses, lichens and the leaves and twigs of low shrubs. Much of the summer is spent harvesting rather than simply feeding: vegetation is cut, carried in the mouth, and laid out to cure before being stored in a haypile under rock cover.

Behavior

Pikas are diurnal and vocal, using sharp calls to advertise territory and warn of predators. Rock-dwelling species tend to be territorial and live at low density, while many burrowing species are far more social and live in family groups. Haymaking is the defining behaviour: individuals make repeated trips through the short summer, and neighbours may attempt to steal from one another's piles.

Human Interaction & Conservation

Pikas are widely used as indicators of climate change in mountain systems, because their heat sensitivity and reliance on cool talus make them vulnerable to warming and to changes in snowpack that affect winter insulation. In parts of Asia, burrowing pikas have been the target of control campaigns, though their role in grassland ecosystems — as prey and as burrow-makers for other species — is increasingly recognised. Status varies by species; verify at the IUCN Red List.