Incubator escapee wiki

Pika

Article Discussion

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Automatic taxobox

A pika (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell,<ref name=dict>Template:Cite Collins Dictionary</ref> or Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell)<ref name=dict2>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a small, mountain-dwelling mammal native to Asia and North America. With short limbs, a very round body, an even coat of fur, and no external tail, they resemble their close relative the rabbit, but with short, rounded ears.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The large-eared pika of the Himalayas and nearby mountains lives at elevations of more than Template:Cvt.

The name pika appears to be derived from the Tungus pika,<ref>Template:OEtymD</ref> and the scientific name Ochotona is derived from the Mongolian word ogotno, оготно, which means pika.<ref>General pika information Template:Webarchive. twycrosszoo.org</ref> It is used for any member of the Ochotonidae (Template:IPAc-en),<ref name="EB1911">Template:Cite EB1911</ref> a family within the order of lagomorphs, the order which also includes the Leporidae (rabbits and hares). They are the smallest animal in the lagomorph group.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Only one genus, Ochotona<ref name="EB1911" /> (Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en), is extant within the family, covering 37 species, though many fossil genera are known. Another species, the Sardinian pika, belonging to the separate genus Prolagus, has become extinct within the last 2,000 years owing to human activity.

Pikas prefer rocky slopes and graze on a range of plants, primarily grasses, flowers, and young stems. In the autumn, they pull hay, soft twigs, and other stores of food under rocks to eat during the long, cold winter.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The pika is also known as the whistling hare because of its high-pitched alarm call it gives when alarmed. The two species found in North America are the American pika, found primarily in the mountains of the western United States and far southwestern Canada, and the collared pika of northern British Columbia, the Yukon, western Northwest Territories and Alaska.

HabitatEdit

File:Collared Pika - Hatchers Pass Alaska.jpg
Collared pika on Hatcher Pass, Alaska

Pikas are native to cold climates in Asia and North America. Most species live on rocky mountainsides, where numerous crevices are available for their shelter, although some pikas also construct crude burrows. A few burrowing species are native to open steppe land. In the mountains of Eurasia, pikas often share their burrows with snowfinches, which build their nests there.<ref name=EoM>Template:Cite book</ref> Changing temperatures have forced some pika populations to restrict their ranges to even higher elevations.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

CharacteristicsEdit

Template:Further Pikas are small mammals, with short limbs and rounded ears. They are about Template:Convert in body length and weigh between Template:Convert, depending on species.

These animals are herbivores and feed on a wide variety of plant matter, including forbs, grasses, sedges, shrub twigs, moss and lichens. Easily digestible food is processed in the gastrointestinal tract and expelled as regular feces. But in order to get nutrients out of hard to digest fiber, pika ferment fiber in the cecum (in the GI tract) and then expel the contents as cecotropes, which are reingested (cecotrophy). The cecotropes are then absorbed in the small intestine to utilize the nutrients.

Collared pikas have been known to store dead birds in their burrows for food during winter and eat the feces of other animals.<ref name="AnimalDiversity" />

As with other lagomorphs, pikas have gnawing incisors and no canines, although they have fewer molars than rabbits. They have a dental formula of Template:DentalFormula = 26.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Another similarity that pikas share with other lagomorphs is that the bottom of their paws are covered with fur and lack paw pads.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Rock-dwelling pikas have small litters of fewer than five young, whilst the burrowing species tend to give birth to more young and to breed more frequently, possibly owing to a greater availability of resources in their native habitats. The young are born altricial (eyes and ears closed, no fur) after a gestation period of between 25 and 30 days.<ref name=EoM/>

ActivityEdit

File:Pika pile.JPG
Vegetation pile drying on rocks for subsequent storage, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah
File:Ochotona princeps pika haying in rocks.jpg
American pika with mouthful of dried grass, Sequoia National Park, California

Pikas are active during daylight (diurnal) or twilight hours (crepuscular), with higher-elevation species generally being more active during the daytime. They show their peak activity just before the winter season. Pikas do not hibernate and remain active throughout the winter by traveling in tunnels under rocks and snow and eating dried plants that they have stored.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Rock-dwelling pikas exhibit two methods of foraging: the first involves direct consumption of food, and the second is characterized by the gathering of plants to store in a "haypile" of cached plants.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The impact of human activity on the tundra ecosystems where pikas live has been recorded dating back to the 1970s.<ref>Brown, R. W., R. S. Johnston, and K. Van Cleve. "Rehabilitation problems of Arctic and alpine regions." Reclamation of drastically disturbed lands (1978): 23-44.</ref> Rather than hibernate during winter, pikas forage for grasses and other forms of plant matter and stash these findings in protected dens in a process called "haying". They eat the dried plants during the winter.<ref>Dearing, M. Denise. "The function of haypiles of pikas (Ochotona princeps)." Journal of Mammalogy 78.4 (1997): 1156-1163. APA</ref> When pikas mistake humans as predators, they may respond to humans as they do to other species that do prey on pikas. Such interactions with humans have been linked to pikas having reduced amounts of foraging time, consequentially limiting the amount of food they can stockpile for winter months.<ref name="Stafl-2015">Template:Cite journal</ref> Pikas prefer foraging in temperatures below Template:Convert, so they generally spend their time in shaded regions and out of direct sunlight when temperatures are high.<ref name="Stafl-2015" /> A link has also been found between temperature increases and lost foraging time, where for every increase of Template:Cvt to the ambient temperature in alpine landscapes home to pikas, those pikas lose 3% of their foraging time.<ref name="Stafl-2015" />

Eurasian pikas commonly live in family groups and share duties of gathering food and keeping watch. Some species are territorial. North American pikas (O. princeps and O. collaris) are asocial, leading solitary lives outside the breeding season.<ref name=AnimalDiversity>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

VocalizationEdit

Pikas have distinct calls, which vary in duration. The call can be short and quick, a little longer and more drawn out or long songs. The short calls are an example of geographic variation. The pikas determine the appropriate time to make short calls by listening for cues for sound localization.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The calls are used for individual recognition, predator warning signals, territory defense, or as a way to attract potential mates.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> There are also different calls depending on the season. In the spring the songs become more frequent during the breeding season. In late summer the vocalizations become short calls. Through various studies, the acoustic characteristics of the vocalizations can be a useful taxonomic tool.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

LifespanEdit

The average lifespan of pikas in the wild is roughly seven years. A pika's age may be determined by the number of adhesion lines on the periosteal bone on the lower jaw. The lifespan does not differ between the sexes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

SpeciesEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The 29 extant species currently recognized are:

Extinct speciesEdit

Many fossil forms of Ochotona are described in the literature, from the Miocene epoch to the early Holocene (extinct species) and present (16.4-0 Ma<ref name="Ge13" />). They lived in Europe, Asia, and North America.Some species listed below are common for Eurasia and North America (O. gromovi, O. tologoica, O. zazhigini, and probably O. whartoni).

Paleontologists have also described multiple forms of pika not referred to specific species (Ochotona indet.) or not certainly identified (O. cf. antiqua, O. cf. cansus, O. cf. daurica, O. cf. eximia, O. cf. gromovi, O. cf. intermedia, O. cf. koslowi, O. cf. lagrelii, O. cf. nihewanica). The statuses of Ochotona (Proochotona) kirgisica and O. spelaeus are uncertain.<ref name="Ge13" />

The "pusilla" group of pikas is characterized by archaic (plesiomorphic) cheek teeth and small size.<ref name="Erbajeva03" />

The North American species migrated from Eurasia. They invaded the New World twice:

  • O. spanglei during the latest Miocene or early Pliocene, followed by a roughly three-million-year-long gap in the known North American pika record<ref name="Erbajeva11" />
  • O. whartoni (giant pika) and small pikas via the Bering Land Bridge during the earliest Pleistocene<ref name="Erbajeva11" />

Ochotona cf. whartoni and small pikas of the O. pusilla group are also known from Siberia. The extant, endemic North American species appeared in the Pleistocene. The North American collared pika (O. collaris) and American pika (O. princeps) have been suggested to have descended from the same ancestor as the steppe pika (O. pusilla).<ref name="Erbajeva11" />

The range of Ochotona was larger in the past, with both extinct and extant species inhabiting Western Europe and Eastern North America, areas that are currently free of pikas. Pleistocene fossils of the extant steppe pika O. pusilla currently native to Asia have been found also in many countries of Europe from the United Kingdom to Russia and from Italy to Poland, and the Asiatic extant northern pika O. hyperborea in one location in the middle Pleistocene United States.<ref name="Ge13" />

File:Pika Ochotona sp. fossil distribution 2.png
Pika Ochotona sp. fossil distribution. Extinct pikas and Ochotona indet. are Template:Ifsubst style="color:red">red, steppe pika O. pusilla Template:Ifsubst style="color:blue">blue, northern pika O. hyperborea Template:Ifsubst style="color:green">green, other extant pikas black.<ref name="Ge13" /><ref name="PaleoDBO" />Template:Refn
File:Fossil occurrences of leporids and ochotonids and global environmental change.png
Fossil occurrences of leporids and ochotonids and global environmental change (climate change, C3/C4 plants distribution)<ref name="Ge13" />

While Ochotona is the only currently living genus of Ochotonidae, extinct genera of ochotonids include †Albertona, †Alloptox, †Amphilagus, †Australagomys, †Austrolagomys, †Bellatona, †Bellatonoides, †Bohlinotona, †Cuyamalagus, †Desmatolagus, †Eurolagus, †Gripholagomys, †Gymnesicolagus, †Hesperolagomys, †Heterolagus, †Kenyalagomys, †Lagopsis, †Marcuinomys, †Ochotonoides, †Ochotonoma, †Oklahomalagus, †Oreolagus, †Paludotona, †Piezodus, †Plicalagus, †Pliolagomys, †Prolagus, †Proochotona (syn. Ochotona), †Pseudobellatona, †Ptychoprolagus, †Russellagus, †Sinolagomys, †Titanomys and †Tonomochota.<ref name="Ge13" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The earliest one is Desmatolagus (middle Eocene to Miocene, 42.5–14.8 Ma<ref name="Ge13" />), usually included in the Ochotonidae, sometimes in Leporidae or in neither ochotonid nor leporid stem-lagomorphs.<ref name="Hordijk10" />

Ochotonids appeared in Asia between the late Eocene and the early Oligocene, and continued to develop along with increased distribution of C3 grasses in previously forest dominated areas under the "climatic optimum" from the late Oligocene to middle Miocene. They thrived in Eurasia, North America, and even Africa. The peak of their diversity occurred during the period from the early Miocene to middle Miocene. Most of them became extinct during the transition from the Miocene to Pliocene, which was accompanied by an increase in diversity of the leporids. It has been proposed that this switch between ochotonids and larger leporids was caused by expansion of C4 plants (particularly the Poaceae) related to global cooling in the late Miocene, since extant pikas reveal a strong preference for C3 plants (Asteraceae, Rosaceae, and Fabaceae, many of them C3). Replacement of large areas of forests by open grassland first started probably in North America and is called sometimes "nature's green revolution".<ref name="Ge13" />

NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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Additional references of the Paleobiology DatabaseEdit

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Further readingEdit

External linksEdit

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  • The trek of the pika, by Michael Morris, Parks Canada, Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks. (includes sound file)

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