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Pika

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Not to be confused with Pica.

Pika[1]
Temporal range:
Miocene to recent, 16.4–0 Ma[2]
American pika (Ochotona princeps) in Sequoia National Park
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Lagomorpha
Family:
Ochotonidae

Thomas, 1897
Genus:
Ochotona

Link, 1795
Type species
Ochotona daurica
Link, 1795
(Lepus dauuricus Pallas, 1776)
Species

See text

A pika (/ˈpaɪkə/ PY-kə; archaically spelled pica) is a small mammal, with short limbs, rounded ears, and no external tail. The name 'pika' is used for any member of the Ochotonidae, a family within the order of lagomorphs, which also includes the Leporidae (rabbits and hares). One genus, Ochotona, is recognised within the family, and it includes 30 species. It is also known as the "whistling hare" due to its high-pitched alarm call when diving into its burrow. The name "pika" appears to be derived from the Tungus piika.

Habitat

Collared pika on Hatcher Pass Alaska

Pikas are native to cold climates, mostly in Asia, North America, and parts of Eastern Europe. Most species live on rocky mountain sides, where numerous crevices in which to shelter occur, although some pika also construct crude burrows. A few burrowing species are native to open steppe land. In the mountains of Eurasia, pikas often share their burrows with snowfinches, which build their nests there.[3]

Characteristics

Ochotona sp. fossils

Pikas are small mammals, with short limbs and small rounded ears. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length and weigh between 120 and 350 grams (4.2 and 12.3 oz), depending on species. Like rabbits, after eating they initially produce soft green feces, which they eat again to take in further nutrition, before producing the final, solid, fecal pellets. Some pikas, such as the collared pika, have been known to store dead birds in their burrows, for food during winter.[4]

These animals are herbivores, and feed on a wide variety of plant matter, including forbs, grasses, sedges, shrub twigs, moss, and lichen. As with other lagomorphs, pikas have gnawing incisors and no canines, although they have fewer molars than rabbits, giving them a dental formula of: 2.0.3.21.0.2.3

Rock-dwelling pikas have small litters of fewer than five young, while the burrowing species tend to give birth to more young, and to breed more frequently, possibly due to a greater availability of resources in their native habitats. The young are born after a gestation period of between 25 and 30 days.[3]

Activity

Vegetation pile, drying on rocks for subsequent storage. Gad Valley, Snowbird Ski Resort, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah
American pika with mouthful of dried grass. Sequoia National Park, CA

Pikas are diurnal or crepuscular, with higher-elevation species generally being more active during the daytime. They show their peak activity just before the winter season. Pikas do not hibernate, so they generally spend time during the summer collecting and storing food they will eat over the winter. Each rock-dwelling pika stores its own "haypile" of dried vegetation, while burrowing species often share food stores with their burrow mates. Haying behavior is more prominent at higher elevations. Many of the vocalizations and social behaviors that pikas exhibit are related to haypile defense.

Eurasian pikas commonly live in family groups and share duties of gathering food and keeping watch. Some species are territorial. North American pikas (O. princeps and O. collaris) are asocial, leading solitary lives outside the breeding season.

Species

There are 30 species listed.

Extinct pikas

There are many known fossil forms of Ochotona described in the literature, from the Miocene epoch to the early Holocene (extinct species) and present (16.4-0 Ma[2]). They lived in Europe, Asia, and North America. Note that some species listed below are common for Eurasia and North America (O. gromovi, O. tologoica, O. zazhigini and probably O. whartoni).

Pika Ochotona sp. fossil distribution. Extinct pikas and Ochotona indet. are red, steppe pika O. pusilla blue, northern pika O. hyperborea green, other extant pikas black.[2][16]

Paleontologists have also described multiple forms of pika not referred to specific species (Ochotona indet.) or not certainly identified (O. cf. antiqua, O. cf. cansus, O. cf. daurica, O. cf. eximia, O. cf. gromovi, O. cf. intermedia, O. cf. koslowi, O. cf. lagrelii, O. cf. nihewanica). The status of Ochotona (Proochotona) kirgisica and O. spelaeus is uncertain.[2]

The "pusilla" group of pikas is characterized by archaic (plesiomorphic) cheek teeth and small size.[10]

The North American species migrated from Eurasia. They invaded the New World twice:

  • Ochotona spanglei during the latest Miocene or early Pliocene, followed by an approximately three million year long gap in the known North American pikas record.[6]
  • Ochotona whartoni (giant pika) and small pikas via the Bering Land Bridge during the earliest Pleistocene.[6]

Ochotona cf. whartoni and small pikas of the O. pusilla group are also known from Siberia. The extant, endemic North American species appeared in the Pleistocene. It has been suggested that the North American collared pika (O. collaris) and American pika (O. princeps) descended from the same ancestor as the steppe pika (O. pusilla).[6]

The range of Ochotona was larger in the past, with both extinct and extant species inhabiting western Europe and eastern North America, areas that are currently free of pikas. Pleistocene fossils of the extant steppe pika Ochotona pusilla currently native to Asia have been found also in many countries of Europe from the United Kingdom to Russia and from Italy to Poland, and the Asiatic extant northern pika Ochotona hyperborea in one location in the middle Pleistocene United States.[2]

Other genera of ochotonids (currently living only Ochotonidae) include except Ochotona (pika) extinct †Albertona, †Alloptox, †Amphilagus, †Australagomys, †Austrolagomys, †Bellatona, †Bellatonoides, †Bohlinotona, †Cuyamalagus, †Desmatolagus, †Eurolagus, †Gripholagomys, †Gymnesicolagus, †Hesperolagomys, †Heterolagus, †Kenyalagomys, †Lagopsis, †Marcuinomys, †Ochotonoides, †Ochotonoma, †Oklahomalagus, †Oreolagus, †Paludotona, †Piezodus, †Plicalagus, †Pliolagomys, †Prolagus, †Proochotona (syn. Ochotona), †Pseudobellatona, †Ptychoprolagus, †Russellagus, †Sinolagomys and †Titanomys.[2] The earliest one is Desmatolagus (middle Eocene to Miocene, 42.5-14.8 Ma[2]), usually included in Ochotonidae, sometimes in Leporidae or in neither ochotonid nor leporid stem-lagomorphs.[17]

Ochotonids appeared in Asia between the late Eocene and the early Oligocene, and continued to develop along with increased distribution of C3 grasses in previously forest dominated areas under the "climatic optimum" from the late Oligocene to middle Miocene. They thrived in Eurasia, North America and even Africa. The peak of their diversity occurred during the period from the early Miocene to middle Miocene, most of them became extinct during the transition from the Miocene to Pliocene, what was accompanied by diversity increase in the leporids. It has been proposed, that this switch between ochotonids and larger leporids was caused by linked to global cooling expansion of C4 plants (particularly in the Poaceae) in the late Miocene, since extant pikas reveal a strong preference for C3 plants (Asteraceae, Rosaceae and Fabaceae, many of them C3). Replacement of large area of forest on the earth that time by open grassland first started probably in North America is called sometimes "nature's green revolution".[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Hoffman, R.S.; Smith, A.T. (2005). "Order Lagomorpha". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 185–193. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg Ge, Deyan; Wen, Zhixin; Xia, Lin; Zhang, Zhaoqun; Erbajeva, Margarita; Huang, Chengming; Yang, Qisen (April 3, 2013). "Evolutionary History of Lagomorphs in Response to Global Environmental Change". PLoS ONE. 8 (4:e59668). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059668. Retrieved May 22, 2014. Table_S1.xls {{cite journal}}: External link in |quote= (help)CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  3. ^ a b Kawamichi, Takeo (1984). Macdonald, D. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. pp. 726–727. ISBN 0-87196-871-1.
  4. ^ http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Ochotona_collaris/
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Fostowicz-Frelik, Łucja; Frelik, Grzegorz; Gasparik, Mihály (October 2010). "Morphological phylogeny of pikas (Lagomorpha: Ochotona), with a description of a new species from the Pliocene/Pleistocene transition of Hungary". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 159. Academy of Natural Sciences: 97–117. doi:10.1635/053.159.0107. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an Erbajeva, Margarita A.; Mead, Jim I.; Alexeeva, Nadezhda V.; Angelone, Chiara; Swift, Sandra L. (2011). "Taxonomic diversity of Late Cenozoic Asian and North American ochotonids (an overview)" (PDF). Palaeontologia Electronica. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology: 1–9. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Cai, Baoquan (1989). "Fossil Lagomorpha from the Late Pliocene of Yangyuan and Yuxian counties, Hebei Province" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. XXVII (3): 170–181. Retrieved May 20, 2014. Translated by Will Downs Department of Geology Bilby Research Center Northern Arizona University October, 1990
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Erbajeva, Margarita A.; Zheng, Shaohua (30 June 2005). "New data on Late Miocene – Pleistocene ochotonids (Ochotonidae, Lagomorpha) from North China" (PDF). Acta zoologica cracoviensia. 48A (1–2). Kraków: 93–117. doi:10.3409/173491505783995734. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  9. ^ Čermák, Stanislav; Obuch, Ján; Benda, Petr (2006). "Notes on the genus Ochotona in the Middle East (Lagomorpha: Ochotonidae)" (PDF). Lynx. 37. Praha: 51–66. ISSN 0024–7774. Retrieved May 22, 2014. {{cite journal}}: Check |issn= value (help)
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Erbajeva, Margarita A.; Mead, Jim I.; Swift, Sandra L. (2003). "Evolution and development of Asian and North American ochotonids" (PDF). Occasional Papers in Earth Sciences No. 5. Palaeontology Program Government of the Yukon: 33–34. Retrieved April 13, 2014. 3rd INTERNATIONAL MAMMOTH CONFERENCE, 2003: PROGRAM AND ABSTRACTS, Edited by John E. Storer
  11. ^ Rekovets, Leonid (2003). "Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) in the periglacial faunas of Ukraine" (PDF). Occasional Papers in Earth Sciences No. 5. Palaeontology Program Government of the Yukon: 130–131. Retrieved April 13, 2014. 3rd INTERNATIONAL MAMMOTH CONFERENCE, 2003: PROGRAM AND ABSTRACTS, Edited by John E. Storer
  12. ^ Shotwell, J. Arnold (1956). "Hemphillian mammalian assemblage from northeastern Oregon". Geological Society America Bulletin. 67 (6). Geological Society America: 717–738. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1956)67[717:HMAFNO]2.0.CO;2. Retrieved April 19, 2014.
  13. ^ "The Paleobiology Database. †Ochotona spanglei Shotwell 1956". Retrieved April 19, 2014.
  14. ^ Guthrie, R.D.; Matthews, John V. Jr. (1971). "The Cape Deceit fauna—Early pleistocene mammalian assemblage from the Alaskan arctic". Quaternary Research. 1 (4): 474–510. doi:10.1016/0033-5894(71)90060-3. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  15. ^ "The Paleobiology Database. †Ochotona whartoni Guthrie and Matthews, Jr. 1971 (pika)". Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  16. ^ "The Paleobiology Database. Ochotona Link 1795 (pika)". Retrieved May 23, 2014.
  17. ^ Hordijk, Kees (2010). "Perseverance of pikas in the Miocene : interplay of climate and competition in the evolution of Spanish Ochotonidae (Lagomorpha, Mammalia)". Geologica Ultraiectina. 333. Departement Aardwetenschappen. ISBN 978-90-5744-194-3. Retrieved May 27, 2014. document type Dissertation full text {{cite journal}}: External link in |quote= (help)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ochotona.

The trek of the pika, by Michael Morris, Parks Canada, Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks. Available at: http://cmiae.org/national-park-feature-article/the-trek-of-the-pika/. INCLUDES SOUND FILE.

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