Birth Control for Pikas?

China is blaming the pika for desertification and feeding the small round eared animals contraceptives.  China says the furry talus dwelling animals eat all the grass and are contributing to the desertification process. Conservationist say pikas are a symptom rather than a cause of desertification.

Read the bizarre article here.

Pika Protection Considered

Pikas in the High Sierras of California may be protected. The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not considering the Pika for protection status as mandated by the Endangered Species Act.

Now, the agency must make a decision by May about the protection of these animals.

“By May, the agency must complete its investigation, and decide if the animal deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act, which would result in strategies to raise its declining populations. The polar bear is the only mammal that has been put under the law because of threats from changing climate,” reported SFgate.com.

Check out my earlier blog post for more information about the lawsuit and the American Pika.

Fly Over Niwot Ridge with Google Earth!

Check out the landscape where some of the finest scientists from all over the U.S. and world come to study alpine ecosytems and climate change. Niwot Ridge is also a great place to hike … if its not hunting season. It’s located near Brainard Lake Recreation Area, and just like Brainard it can be extremely windy. But if you make it past midget pine trees and ice covered lakes to the rocky top, you’ll hear the shrill sounds of pikas and likely see some mountain chickadees!Here is the video:

CO2 Stays in Atmosphere A Long Time

Currently Carbon Dioxide concentrations are above 380 parts per million, which is above the threshold for a warm climate. A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, released at 5 p.m. yesterday shows that carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere longer than other greenhouse gases.

“I think you have to think about this stuff as more like nuclear waste than acid rain: The more we add, the worse off we’ll be,” NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon told the Washington Post over the phone. “The more time that we take to make decisions about carbon dioxide, the more irreversible climate change we’ll be locked into.”

The researchers predict that Carbon Dioxide concentrations will continue to increase and peak at 6oo ppm in some areas. This dramatic increase, researchers say will cause a rise in sea level and droughts reminiscent of the dust bowl.

“Lake Hume at 4%” Photo Credit: suburbanbloke

This study spells trouble for threatened alpine species like the American Pika who will die-off if its body temperature is raised a few degrees. For more about the pika’s plight read my earlier entry “Protection for the Pika?“

Will the Pika be Protected Under the Obama Administration?

"The Pika" Photo Credit: wildxplorer

Do you think the pika will become the first animal to be protected because of climate change under the Obama administration? Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Disapearance of Pika Populations in the Great Basin

“Pikas may act as early sentinels of changes in other montane mammal species”

In a 2003 peer-reviewed study of pika populations published in the Journal of Mammalogy Erik A. Beever, Peter F. Brussard and Joel Berger reported a 28 percent decrease in former pika populations located in the Great Basin.

Photo Credit: danceswithmarmots

The study set out to determine the distribution of pikas relative to the biogeography, climate and with regards to humans influence. No small task and one that really had not been tackled with regards to the pika.

“We revisited historical locations of pikas (Ochotona princeps) within the hydrographic Great Basin during summers of 1994–1999. Seven of 25 populations (28%) reported earlier in the 20th century appeared to have experienced recent extirpations,” the study said.

The populations that lived in lower elevations were often those later reported extinct. Also, lands located on the BLM had higher rates of pika extinctions than lands located elsewhere.  Furthermore researchers found that pikas are stubborn and most do not move from the population where they were born.  This means that if pikas need to move to higher ground to survive many will not do so.

Mountains to researchers are similar to island habitats in that life has adapted in a relatively isolated fashion. Earlier studies have shown that many mountain animals are capable of moving between and adapting to different mountain ranges. However, the American pika does not exhibit this characteristics.

The journal article explains how the pikas came to face is current plight by looking back at the animals historic range. Pikas have been apart of the American landscape for some estimated 500,000 years. These small round creatures once were widely distributed after a brief period of glaciation. But this pika Renaissance was not to last.

“Subsequent warming during the mid-Holocene forced pikas to retreat to higher latitudes and elevations (Grayson 1987; Hafner 1993, 1994). This retreat set the stage for the current relict, disjunct distribution of pikas in the Intermountain West,” the study said.

As temperatures heat up and as climate change is better understood it may be easier for researchers to draw conclusions on why the American pika is disappearing. For now though, researchers say, ” warmer temperatures seem likely to be contributing to apparent losses that have occurred at a pace significantly more rapid than that suggested by paleontological records.”

More to come on more recent studies and findings. Let me know if you come across anything relevent and interesting!

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“Pika”

“Mother Lynx”

“Cranky Marmot”

Photo Credits: mahalie, Tambako and ames.

Pika eek for your cell phone?

"iphone" Photo Credit: Willam Hook

This post is just for fun. Has anyone tried this? Apparently you can download your favorite endangered species sound and picture for your cell phone ring tone.  What animal do you pick up the phone too? Does anyone answer to the shrill ekk of a pika? If you would like to try this check out: http://rareearthtones.org/ringtones/

Protection for the Pika?

NPS photo

by Joanna Nasar

The American Pika could be one of the first high alpine animals listed as endangered because of climate change.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit that aims to protect species that are in peril though public outreach and through existing laws. They are working to get the American Pika listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act. After petitions in October and August of 2007 were filed and no action was taken the center brought two lawsuit in 2008 (one against the California Fish and Game Commission, and one against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) to “compel the agencies to protect the American Pika” according to the center’s Web site.

Shaye Wolf, staff biologist for the center, is working to protect the pika because she believes it is endangered by climate change. “Species and ecosystems in high elevation areas stand out.  The pika is like the canary in the coal mine.  Pikas are early warning indicators,” she said.

One reason that pikas are in danger, she said, is because they have a very high body temperature normally. This high body temperature if raised only a few degrees can cause the animal to overheat and die.

“Pikas can’t withstand exposure to high temperatures,” she said.

Another reason is the “popping of the mountain effect.” Essentially as temperatures rise, pikas will move up the slope of the mountain where it is colder. Eventually, the pikas will not have anywhere to go.

However, there are populations of pikas that have managed to survive at much lower elevations. In Nevada, a population of low dwelling pikas was found.

But Wolf says that doesn’t mean all sub-species of pikas will be able to adapt to rapid climate change. “Pikas in some areas live in micro-climates at lower elevations like lava beds and ice caves. There are always exceptions to the rule,” she said.

Isolated pika populations on mountains, though, seem to be declining.

“This is about preventing pika extinction and preserving a sustainable quality of life,” she said. “We still have time to act but the window is closing.”

Watch a short YouTube video about pikas to learn more, hear its calls and see this animal in action.