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In our opinion, there is no cuter, more fun or entertaining animal that can be found in Kananaskis than the American Pika, Ochotona princeps. With it’s Guinea Pig like size, its fuzzy little feet, or the way it is invisible in the rocks until it moves, everyone who sees this animal is endeared by it.
Cuteness personified
Pika are a lagamorph, so are members of the rabbit and hare family. Like others in that family, they are a handful-sized ball of furry cuteness. Their big brown eyes, perky ears and amazingly furry feet make them loveable, yet unlike any other Kananaskis critter. They’re also invisible – at least until they move. They blend into the limestone talus slopes where they live. Their fur matches their surroundings perfectly. Sitting still in a rock pile, they cannot be seen.
And they move with speed and agility through the rocks when they need to. They’re capable of running very fast. They are intimately familiar with the rockfalls where they live; they can rapidly move on top or in the spaces under the surface that they know so well. Often it is their distinctive “Peeeek-a” call that tells you they are there in the first place. They are more often heard than seen. It is that call that gave them their name; it’s properly pronounced “Peek-a”, not “Pike-a”.
Vocalizations and Social Behaviour
Pika have several types of calls, including mating calls, territorial calls, and alarm calls. They tend to be most vocal early season when family units are forming, and in the fall, when the young are weaned and getting feisty.
Pika form breeding pairs early in summer just before the snows melt, between late Aril and mid-May. Rather than stay and forage together, the pair has an overlapping territory, and only occasionally forage in the same place at the same time. Territories are marked by scent rubbing, urination and defecation. After mating, females gestate for about 30 days, giving birth around the beginning of July. The pups are weaned after 3-4 weeks, and appear in early August.
When the snow-free and grass feeding season is longer, females can have 2 litters, each with 2-4 pups. However, typically only the first litter is successfully weaned. If the first litter doesn’t make it, the second usually does. Once weaned, the young need to establish their own territory, and start collecting food for the winter. They typically do so in an area close to, but out of, the territory of their mother. Research shows it is difficult for Pika to disperse more than 300 m from where they are born.
Researchers have even looked at their sitting postures. Each Pika has a 1or 2 favourite places to sit. These are often covered in Elegant Orange Lichen, for reasons explained on that page. There are 5 different ways to sit: alert, normal, perched, propped and basking. The Normal position is pictured at right; they just look like a small furry, round ball! Alert and Basking are discussed below.
Food and Haying
Pika eat grasses and flowers (flowers are scientifically referred to as “forbs”). However, in addition to foraging to eat, they must build middens, referred to as “haypiles”. These haypiles consist of grasses or other plant material they have collected that dry out and provide a food source through the winter. A haypile is pictured below right. Pika do not hibernate. In the winter, they live a subnivean life in their rock piles, insulated by the overlying snow from the cold. They make grass nests in spaces in the rocks (they do not nest in their haypiles), and travel between the rocks to access their haypiles. In addition to eating vegetation, they harvest it as well. Here’s a short movie of a Pika harvesting Yellow Mountain Avens.
Pika can digest a lot of what they eat. But the more fibrous bits they expel as “cecotropes”, which is a kind of specialty feces that is only partially broken down. Accordingly, they eat some of their own scat – often just as they excrete it – and digest it a second time.
Build a bigger haypile
Each Pika must harvest about 20 kg of dried grasses to see them through the winter, and the more, the better. If they don’t collect enough grass, they die. However, research suggests females may share some of their haypiles with their offspring of the previous year, though this is not that common given how territorial they are. With a snow-free season of less than 150 days in their alpine homes, and allowing for weight loss as vegetative matter dries out, research suggests each Pika must collect 500 grams of plant material every day to build a big enough haypile. They young of year have even less time to harvest, so do so at a much higher rate. And they do so one mouthful at a time. They are known to steal hay from each other’s haypiles. Their haypiles are also raided by Chipmunks and occasionally Ground Squirrels.
Haypiles and haypile sites are often re-used year after year. Pika can live up to 7 years, but suffer substantial mortality, through winter kill, starvation, heat stress and predation.
Adapted for the cold
Pika live in rockpiles in the high alpine. These talus rockpiles, which are all over Kananaskis, must have big enough rocks for Pika to move between them, so piles of gravel don’t work. They also must provide easy access to grasses at the end of the rockpiles that the Pika can eat, as plants don’t tend to grow in the rocks. Pika rarely harvest more than a few meters from their rocks. The most famous and accessible place they live in K-Country is Rock Glacier, right on Highway 40 near the Highwood Pass. Here, they have been extensively researched. But they can be found anywhere there are enough big rocks, with grasses at the edge. You’ll find them at Chester Lake, Rummel Lake, Ptarmigan Cirque, Burstall Pass and many, many other sites.
Since they live in an environment that is cold, they have adaptations including a thick double coat of fur, and furry insulated feet. But there are downsides to dressing this warmly if it’s hot outside: it’s difficult to cool off. Accordingly, Pika should be susceptible to climate change and warming temperatures. They must winter under snow, so reducing snowfalls is bad for Pika. Studies have shown that Pika can die if exposed to temperatures over 25° for just 6 hrs.
But also adapted for the heat
Research also shows that Pika know how to handle warm temps. They can even survive in places where temperatures can be above 38° in summer. They have several strategies.
First, they get more active in the coolest periods of the day: dawn and dusk, though they never become nocturnal. Second, they use shorter harvesting time mid-day, and more time cooling off under the rocks. Normal time harvesting is about 30-40 minutes with 10-minute feeding and 10-minute breaks. When hot, they’ll harvest for 15-20 minutes, still feed for 10 but hide in the rocks for 20. Interestingly, temperature studies show that even on the hottest of days at Rock Glacier, just 1 m into the holes in the rock pile, it’s a constant 8-10°. This makes it easy for a Pika to cool off.
Finally, they use a basking pose, as shown at right. They’ll find a cool rock in the shade, and literally press their body into it. This maximizes heat transfer from the cool rocks to them. The scientific term for this is “splooting”; we call it “pancaking”. Just 5 minutes of this can cool them off enough even on a 34° day.
Their greatest risk from climate change is a lack of snowpack. They must overwinter under snow, and that snow must last at least 5 months or more. Snow offers them moderation from extreme temperatures and protection from winter predators.
They have enemies
Pika may be adorable to us, but they have many enemies. They are targeted by raptors such as hawks, cats such as Bobcat or Lynx and even Mountain Lions, and canids such as Coyote or Red Fox. They REALLY don’t like you visiting their rock piles with your dog, which they see as a very bad threat. They’re not big fans of humans if we make a lot of noise and chase them for photographs. Sit still and be quiet, however, and Pika will quickly ignore you (but not your dog). Remember, Pika need to forage continuously. You disturbing them from doing so increase the risk that their haypile will not get them through the winter.
When any of these natural or human threats appear, Pika are quick with alarm calls, and fast to disappear into their rocks. They’ll sit on a high rock in Alert pose and yell, pictured above right. Pika even respond to the alarm calls of other animals who share their space, like Marmots, Chipmunks and Ground Squirrels.
Beware the Weasel
Once inside their rocks, they’re safe from most predators, but not all of them. Their most problematic predators are Weasels. Both Long-tailed and Short-Tailed Weasels can fit into almost any hole in the rocks a Pika can. A Long-Tailed Weasel hunting Pika is pictured at right. When Weasels appear, research shows that Pika do not make any alarm calls; they just quickly and quietly hide in the rocks. Often, they run away from their nesting and haypile sites, where their scent is strongest.
Pika often share rockpile space with other animals, as noted. While we think of these animals as vegetarian, Ground Squirrels – and the Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel in particular – are opportunistic carnivores. Was the Pika pictured at right killed by the Ground Squirrel? Or did it die some other way, and was the Ground Squirrel simply taking advantage of the carcass? We have seen evidence at Rock Glacier and elsewhere that domestic dogs have killed Pika. Generally, in the wilderness, animals do not kill for fun. Things that are killed are eaten by the predator, not just killed and abandoned.
A worldwide species
The Pika in K-Country are the American Pika, and in fact are Ochotona princeps ssp. Inglesmalde. The specific subspecies was first identified on Mt. Inglesmalde in Banff. There’s another Pika species native to northern BC, Yukon, Alaska and the Northwest Territories called the Collared Pika. Pika are found all over the world where there are cold alpine environments. There are 34 recognized species of Ochotona alive today, and another +60 species of Ochotona that are extinct and have been found in fossil form. The Latin name Ochotona actually comes from the Mongolian word for Pika.
K-Country is Great for Pika Watching
We had the privilege of supporting a film crew from ITV in England filming a documentary about Pika in 2021. The show, called “A Year On Planet Earth”, showcased the challenges to Pika survival. Sadly, it was never shown on Canadian TV. However, the film crew came here because of the amazing opportunities we have to watch Pika in action.
Next time you’re in the K-Country alpine in mid-Summer, find a rockpile where the grass around it looks mown down. Sit quietly for a while and we’re certain you’ll be treated to the show put on by the Pika, Kananaskis’ most adorable animal.
Meet some of K-Country’s other (less cute) critters here!
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