Pikas tend to select plants in a definite sequence through a season. Studies suggest that they divide their trips about equally between the two activities but found that haymakers tend to harvest stalks, leaves and blossoms of flowers, while grazers tend to munch on grasses (perhaps, as folks who mow their lawns know, because grass is a constant renewable resource). They engage in two distinctly different types of foraging behavior: haying (collecting food for storage) and grazing (eating on the spot). In the meadows, pikas literally mow down plants, turning their heads to the side to bite off stems as close to the ground as possible. They dash back and forth between the talus slopes and the meadows where they forage, returning each time to their hay piles near the center of their territories with mouthfuls of flowers and grasses. Because they do not hibernate, they must store food for winter. Unlike the marmot, another small mountain mammal with a whistle-like call, the pika doesn¹t hibernate. They are about 7 inches long and 3 inches high and have a pelage like that of hares and rabbits. The hind feet are not much longer than the front feet and their heads look elongated. They are small robust mammals with short ears, short legs, and no external tail. In some places pika are commonly called “rock rabbits” or “little chief hare.”Īt first glance, which is about all one gets of them dashing about in the wild, they appear to be more closely related to guinea pigs than rabbits. The pika is the smallest of the lagomorphs, a taxonomic group that includes hares and rabbits. These unique animals inhabit the rocky talus slopes of mountains in central and southern Alaska and are the northern representatives of a genus that is distributed throughout the Rocky Mountains, Cascade ranges and California. A small high-altitude mammal that most literally “makes hay while the sun shines” is the Collared Pika (Ochotona collaris).
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