Productive Pikas
BY KATE
Did you know that pikas are related to rabbits? Pikas look like tiny rabbits with brown or grayish fur. They live in many different habits and eat lots of plants. Pikas have small ovalish bodies with no visible tail. They have changed their behavior and have adapted to many things.
Pikas are found in many different places such as North America, Alaska, Yukon, and Central Asia. They live in rocky areas, meadows, steppes, shrubs and desert areas. Some like to live in broken rocks while other pikas like burrows. Pikas eat primarily plants such as weeds, wild flowers, grass, leaves, twigs and lichen because they live in high elevations. Most of the food that they gather is high in nutrients.They gather plants and put them into hay piles. In the winter, they put the hay piles in their burrow or nest. They stay active during the winter, they travel in tunnels and they dig in the snow. To stay warm, pikas have thick fur.
Pikas are small and have round ears and grow five to twelve inches long. A pika’s call sounds like a high pitched bark. They use it to warn other pikas of danger, to attract the opposite gender, to define their territory and finally to protect their territory. Most pikas are pregnant for thirty days. They have litters as big as thirteen and as small as one. When pikas are born, they are hairless but they grow quickly. Some pikas have five liters per year. They mate in May and early June. Female pikas reach sexual maturity when they are 21 days old. They breed shortly after a litter. They reach adult size within 40 days.
They have adapted to throw their voices to sound like they are somewhere else so that they can get away from predators. Rocky mountain pikas are not social but other pikas are. They are active during the day. Sometimes they steal from their neighbors. Pikas are hard working and clever. Sometimes they select potentially dangerous plants but store them in their winter food supply so by the time they eat them the poison is weaker. Smart!
Pikas are astoundingly one of America's most toughest animals. They eat poisonous plants sometimes when the poison is weak. Eating plants and burrowing in their nest they also have many liters. One of the most significant things about pikas is that they play an important role in the ecosystem biodiversity. “Because they: (i) make burrows that are the primary homes to a wide variety of small birds and lizards; (ii) create microhabitat disturbances that result in an increase in plant species richness; (iii) serve as the principal prey for nearly all of the plateau's predator species.”(Smith and J. Marc Foggin)
