For many years, my favorite mammal has been the mouse-sized pika. They are found throughout the mountains of the western US, in talus fields and piles of broken rock that are fringed by vegetation in alpine areas, usually at or above the tree line.
I often find them when I am hiking in the higher elevations of the Alta ski area, at 9500 feet and above. Because of their gray-brown fur, pikas can be difficult to see, but they are very vocal and their “nreeee” calls
make it easy to know they are nearby. Recent studies suggest some populations are declining due to various factors, most climate change.
The American pika (Ochotona princeps) is a relative of rabbits and about 6 inches in length. Pikas are herbivores, eating grasses, weeds, and tall wildflowers. To prepare for winter, pikas save up food during the summer. A pika will collect a pile of wildflowers and grasses and put them out in the sun to dry. The plants are stored in the pika's den until winter.
A relative, Ili pika (Ochotona iliensis), was discovered in Xinjiang, NW China in 1983 and is larger than the American pika. The Ili population has declined severely and is a threatened species.
Pica is a size of type, 10 characters per inch. In the seventies, I spent much time creating newspaper ads for my business, which meant I had to pay attention to pica and elite (12 characters per inch) and other type specifications if I wanted the ad to be correct. As a result, I misspelled “pika” for many years, using the “pica” spelling I had learned in advertising work. Pica is also an eating disorder that can be exhibited by the consumption of dirt.
I’ve heard that the pika inspired the character Pikachu in Pokemon, maybe the Ili pika. There is definitely a similarity, tho Pikachu’s ears are much longer.
Most of the images here were taken this summer. A few are from September a couple years ago, when Alta got an early blanket of snow.
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