Partly based on Seglund’s research, the U.S. In the summary of her study, Seglund wrote: “… Though the climate may be changing in the Southern Rocky Mountains, it currently appears that climate conditions in the state fall into the realm of temperature and precipitation cycles appropriate for maintaining healthy pika populations and distribution.” With few human activities nearby, pika habitat won’t be subject to fragmentation, which disturbs natural connections between populations. The vast majority of the available habitat for pika in Colorado is on high-elevation public land that is not heavily impacted by roads, grazing and other human activity. In Colorado there’s more available habitat, more moisture and the summertime temperatures are cool enough for pika to thrive. But the mountains in the Great Basin are much different than Colorado’s: they are at a lower altitude, provide limited contiguous habitat, receive less moisture and hold warmer temperatures. Temperatures throughout the Mountain West certainly have been rising during the last 50 years, Seglund said. The news stories that stoked concern about the pika were based on a research project in Nevada’s Great Basin in 2003 that stated that global warming was the likely cause of the extirpation of some pika populations in the Great Basin. Still not impressed? Well, to sustain all that work, they must fill their bellies nine times a day to keep up their energy. Pikas do not hibernate.Ī 1990 study showed that the average weight of their “haystacks” is 61 pounds and that in a 10-week time period one pika will make 14,000 foraging trips – 25 per hour – to secure its food stash. They spend the warm months gathering vegetation that will sustain them through the winter. Pikas are hardy critters that weigh just four ounces. “We were even finding them in these little talus areas and at lower elevations where I never guessed pika would have lived,” she said.
Since the original surveys were completed, more than 900 occupied sites have been documented by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. In the spots where pikas were not found, the habitat was unsuitable. The animals were found in more than 90 percent of those sites. Her field crew surveyed 62 historical locations across the state to determine the presence of pikas. Seglund conducted a major research project to determine the health of pika populations in Colorado in 2008. “In their primary habitat, mainly at and above timberline, where there is lots of talus, we find pikas almost everywhere we look,” explained Amy Seglund, a species conservation biologist for Parks and Wildlife. While news stories have circulated recently that pikas are disappearing from the landscape, Colorado Parks and Wildlife researchers have found populations well-distributed throughout Colorado’s mountains. The app also allows users to attach photos and videos to their submissions.RBC I The pika, one of the cutest and toughest little critters in the Rockies, appears to be thriving throughout Colorado’s high country. Users can log pika observations in the app by recording their location, the date, what they saw and heard, how many pikas they detected, the weather conditions and more. Rocky Mountain Wild and the Denver Zoo partnered to create the Colorado Pika Project, which runs the Pika Patrol app. Around 570 volunteers will use the app in Colorado, and the project expects to grow its volunteer base and the area it is studying in the future. 26 to help community members and scientists track observations and monitor pika populations. The close relatives of rabbits live at high elevations and survive in harsh climates, but could be vulnerable to climate change with rising temperatures and earlier-melting snowpacks.Ī new app called Pika Patrol launched on the Apple App Store and Google Play store Sept. The American pika likes to make its presence known to hikers on many of Colorado’s trails.
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