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Pikas are native to cold climates, mostly in Asia, North America and parts of eastern Europe. Most species live on rocky mountain sides, where there are numerous crevices to shelter in, although some also construct crude burrows. A few burrowing species are instead native to open steppe land. In the mountains of Eurasia, pikas often share their burrows with snowfinches, which build their nests there[4].
In an article in the Journal of Biogeography, archeologist Donald Grayson warned that human activity and global climate change appeared to be pushing the American pika population to ever-higher elevations and thus possibly toward extinction.[5][6] Grayson studied pika habitation over the past 40,000 years in the region between the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) and Rocky Mountains. An earlier Journal of Mammalogy article reached a similar conclusion. Because of these factors, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined the pika may warrant protected status[7] under the Endangered Species Act and is currently conducting a status review to be completed by February 1, 2010.[8]
Pikas are small hamster-like animals, with short limbs, rounded ears, and short tails. They are about 18-20 cm in body length, with a tail less than 2 cm long, and weigh between 75 and 290 grams, depending on species. Like rabbits, after eating they initially produce soft green feces, which they eat again to extract further nutrition, before producing the final, solid, fecal pellets.
