They collect vegetation and store it in haypiles as a food source for the winter months. LIFE CYCLE: American pikas can live to be seven years old.įEEDING: American pikas are generalist herbivores most water needs are met through consumed plants. Pikas are born blind and helpless pups open their eyes at nine days old and generally head out on their own by four weeks old. Females bear one or two litters of two to four pups. They are known to disperse as far as two kilometers, and historically may have dispersed as far as 20 kilometers.īREEDING: Pikas form mated pairs each spring before snowmelt. MIGRATION: The American pika does not migrate, but juveniles may disperse to new habitat or nearby populations. Pikas inhabit mountainous regions throughout the western United States and Canada: the Rocky Mountains from northern New Mexico to central British Columbia, the Great Basin, and the Sierra Nevada of California through the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington. RANGE: The American pika is broken into 36 subspecies based on geography and assumed metapopulation structure. HABITAT: American pikas primarily live in rocky talus slopes near alpine meadows, but are sometimes found at rocky areas along streams and in lava fields adjacent to appropriate vegetation. The animal is generally egg-shaped, with rounded ears, short legs, and no visible tail. It is about six to eight inches long and weighs four to six ounces. American pikas have historically also been referred to by such common names as cony, rock rabbit, mouse hare, whistling hare, and piping hare.ĭESCRIPTION: The American pika is a small, herbivorous mammal with thick, light brown fur. The species name princeps comes from the Latin word for chief, referring to the Chipewyan Indian name for the pika: “little chief hare.” The word pika comes from the name used by the Tunguses tribe in northeast Siberia. The genus name Ochotona stems from the Mongolian word for pikas, ochodona.
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