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Description
These animals are hard to spot; they blend in perfectly with the boulder fields they often call home. However, if you sit and watch for long enough, rocks start scurrying around. These are pikas.

Pikas (Ochotona princeps) are absurdly cute animals and are related to rabbits and hares. They live at high altitudes, often on tundra. They can often be found in rocky environments. They don't hibernate, which means they must store grass to provide food and warm bedding for the harsh winters they face in their habitat.

Pikas appear to be moving to higher and higher altitudes as climate change progresses. We don't know why; maybe it's a change in vegetation, maybe they're extremely sensitive to temperature. It's likely a combination of factors. Either way, global warming is very bad news for these animals. There were attempts to list them as endangered in the US, but they failed.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Description
These animals are hard to spot; they blend in perfectly with the boulder fields they often call home. However, if you sit and watch for long enough, rocks start scurrying around. These are pikas.

Pikas (Ochotona princeps) are absurdly cute animals and are related to rabbits and hares. They live at high altitudes, often on tundra. They can often be found in rocky environments. They don't hibernate, which means they must store grass to provide food and warm bedding for the harsh winters they face in their habitat.

Pikas appear to be moving to higher and higher altitudes as climate change progresses. We don't know why; maybe it's a change in vegetation, maybe they're extremely sensitive to temperature. It's likely a combination of factors. Either way, global warming is very bad news for these animals. There were attempts to list them as endangered in the US, but they failed.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.