Another reason why pikas can survive these cool microclimates is that their resting body temperature is only a few degrees below its lethal threshold. Torpor is usually triggered by a limited food supply or the ambient temperature outside. Torpor is a lot like hibernation where it’s a survival tactic used to conserve energy, but torpor is only entered in short periods of time (usually just a night) and it’s not as deep of a sleep as hibernation. That’s okay! Because I can help with that. Hibernation you probably know from bears, but maybe you haven’t heard of torpor before. Because they possess these traits and thick coats, they can survive in the harsh alpine winter without entering torpor or hibernation. Pikas need cool microclimates because they can get really hot because they metabolize food so quickly and they retain that heat. princeps has been impacted by climate change is by thermal physiological stress. There is hope that they can be used as an indicator species for the impending ramifications of climate change in the future. Because they can overheat so easily they’ve become super important to scientists! Scientists have started looking at the pikas to determine how severely climate change is affecting wildlife. Even in the summer with their thinner coat, they can overheat if they spend too much time in the hot sun. Despite their ability to change the thickness of their fur, the pika is a very climate-sensitive animal. It’s like how huskies will get rid of their winter coat in giant balls of fluff when they’re brushed. Pikas have thick fur that helps keep them warm during the winter, and during the summer, they go through a molting period where their coat gets thinned. After the babies leave the den, it only takes about three months for them to reach their adult size. The mother will carry two to six babies for a month, and once they are born, they rely on her for another month before heading out. Their mating season is in early to mid-spring, and they can breed again in the summer of the same year. It even turns out that pikas have specific places that they like to make their hay piles! They leave the greens outside to dry out in the sun to prevent the collected food from rotting. They collect vegetation throughout the year and make hay piles by their den for the winter. Their diet consists of grasses, weeds, tall wildflowers, and sometimes yellow-bellied marmot scat. They prefer to live in alpine ecosystems at the bottom of mountains where there are plenty of rocks to make dens in. Their range includes Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and western Canada. They live from six to seven years, but sadly many will die from the ages three to four. They are about 18-20 centimeters in length, think the width of a piece of paper, with large ears and no visible tails. They have short, stout little bodies that are brown, black, or tan in coloration. The American pika, or Ochotona princeps, is a small rodent-like mammal. Let’s get to know our version of Pikachu! Just like how Pikachu generates electricity, the American pika has an extremely fast metabolism. But not everyone knows that we have our own version of Pikachu living in the mountains in America! This small rodent-like mammal is called the American pika. Specifically, a little cutie named Pikachu! Pikachu is a mouse Pokemon that can generate powerful charges of electricity and is pretty speedy. Pika! Pika! You’ve probably heard this adorable call before, if not take a look at an anime called Pokemon. PIKA POWER! The tiny mammal that packs a punch against cold

Pika mouse