5/16/2023 0 Comments Pika rodent![]() ![]() Varner will present her pika research during two seminars at Utah State University on January 16 and 17. These Guinea pig-sized creatures occur across the more mountainous areas of western North America in a range. And so in that way some scientists have considered them to be ecosystem engineers, which just means that they have a lot of wide-ranging effects on the ecosystem in which they are found." Consider the situation of the American Pika. "They can have big effects on the meadow vegetation based on what plants they choose to eat and what plants they choose to cache. The movement of these small herbivores not only impacts weasels who eat pika, but also plants the pikas eat. Weasels are definitely the animal that rely on pikas most as a source of prey," Varner said. "First, they serve as food base for certain kinds of predators, especially weasels. The American pika lives primarily at elevations between 8,000 and 13,000 feet, though it may be found at significantly lower elevations, including a little above sea level. The movement of pikas upslope is having a cascading impact on the ecosystem. What they look like: American Pikas are hearty small mammals who live in rock piles in the mountains of western North America. "And so these factors have combined to make lower elevation habitats, you know, seem to be less suitable under a changing climate." "So the basic idea there is that as the climate warms, you have both this double whammy of warmer summers where the pikas are restricting their activity, they can't collect enough food and also winters that have less snowpack where you see them actually being ironically exposed to colder temperatures over the winter," she said. ![]() Varner warns that changes in temperature are altering that terrain, forcing pikas to move to higher elevations. Pikas thrive in rocky fields with plentiful grasses at high alpine elevations. They are small mammals, they are closely related to rabbits and they are about the size and shape of a potato with big round ears," said Johanna Varner, an assistant professor of biology at Colorado Mesa University. Although he looks like a rodent, hes actually the smallest cousin of the rabbit. "In 2009, highly scientific poll sent to mammal biologists pikas were actually voted the cutest mammal of all. Narrator This little guy is an American Pika. A change of habitat by a small mammal is having an impact on our mountain ecosystems, and the pika is being used to help understand high elevation mountain ecosystems. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |