![]() ![]() ![]() But, should the USFWS turn it down, the study should help future petitions to have the animal declared endangered, as the study confirms that climate change is putting the animal at real risk, says endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona Noah Greenwald. Hopefully, the ruling will be in favor of the pika. But the talus fields are becoming a much hotter, drier place in summer and a very harsh place in winter, with less snowfall to insulate the critter from cold.Ī preliminary ruling is due this September, but the new study won’t be taken into account because the agency’s staff only takes into consideration information submitted with the petition, said Serena Baker, a USFWS spokeswoman. The animals make their home on mountain slopes, known as talus, where they search for open spaces in the ground to burrow. The pika are tailored to live in a very specific conditions, and are very sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity. “The longer we go along, the evidence continues to suggest that climate is the single strongest factor,” said Beever.Įssentially, the pika are dying of exposure in their own burrows, and it’s all because of us. In the Great Basin, which stretches from Utah’s Wasatch mountains in the east to the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains in the west, the population is down about 44% compared to historical records. In north-eastern California, the pika was only found in 11 of the 29 sites of confirmed habitat. In the nearby Cedar Breaks National Monument, the animal was nowhere to be seen on three-quarters of their historical range according to Erik Beever, a research ecologist with the USGS and lead author of the study. The American pika (all species of pika are extremely cute) has completely disappeared from the Zion National Park in Utah, despite sightings as recently as 2011. While the pika overall seems to be struggling, the study found that it’s thriving in a few places - most notably the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.īut don’t rest easy just yet. It did not measure how many total American pika still exist, but studied several areas where it has historically roamed eating grass, weeds and wildflowers. The study provides more conclusive evidence to the effect of global warming on the tiny mammal, building on earlier research which found that climate change was at least partly contributing to the animal’s decline. After observing the animal from 2012 to 2025, the Survey found that the pika’s range is shrinking in southern Utah, north-east California, and in most of Nevada, parts of Utah, Oregon, Idaho and California - almost the entire Great Basin. The main culprit seems to be loss of habitat powered by climate change, according to findings by the US Geological Survey. Whole populations of the tiny rabbit-like mammal known as the American pika are vanishing from the animal’s historic range in the mountainous areas of the western USA. Image credits NPS Climate Change / Flickr. I brought you a gift! Don’t kill us please. The American pika, “one of the cutest animals” in the country, is feeling the heat as a hotter, drier summers threaten its habitat.
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