Green Options

The American Pika (Ochotona princeps), a small relative of the rabbit, may be facing extinction as warming temperatures eliminate Pikas from their alpine habitat. The USFWS is expected to decide by Feb. 1, 2010 if the American Pika will receive endangered species designation.

An alarming number of Pikas have already become early victims of global warming. They are believed to be regionally extinct in in some areas of the Great Basin mountains of Nevada and Oregon, where more than a third of the American Pika population has disappeared.

Pikas are highly adapted to their alpine environments. Their dense fur makes them susceptible to overheating, and Pikas will die if exposed to temperatures as low as 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pikas do not hibernate, but instead prepare for the winter by cutting and sun-drying vegetation for storage, which they consume in the winter. This haying activity has given the America Pika the nickname “ecosystem engineer”

The pika, a relation of the rabbit, is blamed for desertification. China’s authorities have scattered 200kg of rodent contraceptive pellets across the Tibetan plateau to control what they describe as a “plague of desert rats”.

The Center for Biological Diversity has won a lawsuit against the US Department of the Interior to force the government to consider listing the American pika as threatened or endangered.

The tiny rabbit-like rodent has been in steep decline in recent years, which many blame on climate change. The animal has thick fur and can’t survive in temperatures higher than 80 degrees.