EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is the first in a new MoJo series that goes beyond bison, bears and wolves to spotlight Yellowstone’s often-overlooked wildlife.
At less than 8 inches long, pikas may be tiny, but don’t let their size fool you. These plump little mammals are having an outsized impact — especially when it comes to helping scientists understand the effects of a warming world.
Pikas are closely related to rabbits and hares, but they look more like rodents, such as mice and chinchillas. Small and rounded, they have thick brown and black fur, barely-there tails, and short, curved ears that give them an almost teddy-bear look.
More vocal than their long-eared cousins, pikas frequently make sharp, high-pitched chirps to warn of danger, attract mates and chat with their neighbors. As the experts say, “You’re likely to hear a pika before you see it.”
Temperature Sensitive
Pikas are native to parts of Asia and North America, including regions of Canada and Russia. In the United States, they inhabit mountainous areas of the West, particularly the Rockies, Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges.
They’re commonly found in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada, and New Mexico. In Yellowstone National Park, they’re often seen in the Mammoth and Tower areas. They’re also abundant throughout Grand Teton, which researchers consider “great pika habitat.”
Great habitat means it offers the exacting conditions pikas need to survive. Specifically, they rely on rocky terrain near vegetation with consistently cool temperatures — sustained heat above 75 degrees Fahrenheit can be deadly.
“They’re kind of the canary in the coal mine. If we see climate change having an effect on them, we can predict that it’s going to have an effect on other species in the long run.”
Mackenzie Jeffress, research associate, National Park Service, University of Idaho
Because pikas struggle to regulate their body temperature, they dwell at high elevations, typically between 8,000 and 12,000 feet, where the air is crisp — if not downright arctic in winter. In Yellowstone, temperatures at these altitudes range from summer highs in the 70s to winter lows of minus 66 degrees.
Even in these subfreezing conditions, pikas don’t hibernate during the winter. They live beneath the snowpack, navigating passageways in the subnivean zone and surviving on caches of dried wildflowers and tall grasses gathered during warmer weather.
Indicator Species
But as the climate changes, those consistently cool conditions are getting harder to come by. To adapt, some pikas are moving to even higher elevations — in some cases hundreds of feet above their historic range — while others are disappearing altogether.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, pikas have already vanished from over one-third of their previously known habitat in Oregon and Nevada. In Yellowstone, fewer pikas are found in lower elevations, but their overall population remains high, according to the National Park Service.
Like polar bears in the Arctic, pikas have become an indicator species for climate change. Scientists have spent decades studying how these mountain-dwelling mammals are responding to rising temperatures — research that is helping them better understand how climate change could affect other species.
“They’re kind of the canary in the coal mine,” says Mackenzie Jeffress, a research associate with the National Park Service and the University of Idaho, in a NPS video. “If we see climate change having an effect on them, we can predict that it’s going to have an effect on other species in the long run.”
Tiny and easy to overlook, pikas are sounding a clear warning about our warming world.
