New Study Reveals a Worrisome Future for This Cute Rocky Mountain Animal—Thanks to Climate Change
Mr. Mustard. This was the name Chris Ray gave to a pika she spotted in the Rocky Mountains while working on a research project in the 1990s. Ray, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder, named him after noticing yellow tags on his ears. When she trapped him, the pika was an adult, and he went on to live for nine more years. “I don’t see that anymore,” Ray laments in a press release after the latest study she and her team conducted and published in the journal Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. The study documents the decline in population and reproductive success of pikas in the Rocky Mountains at a worrisome rate. Blame climate change.
American pikas, also called “Ochotona princeps,” are one of the most iconic creatures nestling about 10 miles south of the Rocky Mountains National Park in Colorado. With a size resembling that of a rat, they are close cousins of rabbits and hares. They patrol the quiet mountaintops, invisibly supporting the growth of surrounding ecosystems. Unlike other creatures, they “don’t pant like a dog,” and they don’t sweat. They just sit around, which is the only way they dissipate their metabolic heat, researchers revealed in the paper.
With the onset of winter, they begin storing haypiles, which not only help them survive harsh winters, but also ensure reproductive success the following spring season. However, the study revealed something heartbreaking. Despite plenty of haypile stock in their dens, the recruitment of pikas seemed to be declining at an astonishingly sad rate.
The study is not a new project. It started as far back as 1981, running through 1990, when Charles Southwick, a former professor at Colorado Boulder, set out to follow the pika populations at Niwot Ridge, located on the eastern side of the Colorado Front Range, cradled by swatches of alpine and tundra. Southwick and his team trapped pikas and put tags on them, sticking them to their taluses or piles of rocks. In the latest research, pikas dwelling above treelines were investigated by trapping them with the lure of fresh food.
Each pika trapped was tagged with color-coded rabbit ear tags and released after information like weight, sex, reproductive status, and juvenile stage was recorded. Strict trapping protocols were followed. Sites were baited with slices of fresh apples, alfalfa, salt licks, mirrors, and playbacks. Data revealed a stark 50% decline in the juvenile pika population. It was strange, but when the team delved deeper into the mystery, they realized the cause ran much deeper than they had thought. As it turned out, the warming summer season was making it challenging for juvenile pikas to migrate to another habitat.
They were finding trouble crossing one mountain range as it became harder to climb down in elevation, with scorching winds disrupting their progress. The exact reason for declining recruitment remains unknown, but blazing summers were likely the top reason. The dwindling pika population is not just bad news for the researchers, but also a big deal for visitors who are used to getting greeted by the yelling and squeaking sounds of pikas as they hike along the talus slopes, mountain trails, Timberlane Falls, and Emerald Lake. “If you don’t have that anymore, your experience in the wild is degraded,” Ray confessed.
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