topic Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika? in Community Chat

Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Kachina624 — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 21:33:03 GMT

You never hear about them but they're a super cute little mammal similar to a hampster. They live in colonies in rocky area at high altitudes. You find yourself looking a a rock slide and suddenly realize it's alive with frantic activity as they race around at warp speed.

I doubt anybody ever catches one.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

deepwaterdotter — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 21:36:28 GMT

Reminds me of a tiny rabbit.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Kachina624 — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 21:46:10 GMT

@deepwaterdotter. They are related to rabbits but much smaller at a maximum of 9" in length.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

cheriere — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 21:48:27 GMT

@Kachina624

How cute!❤️❤️❤️

I never even heard of one before! Thanks for posting this! You're broadening my horizons.😃

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Bookplate — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 21:51:31 GMT

As a child I recall seeing marmots in the mountains, but this little fellow is even cuter.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Kachina624 — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 21:53:50 GMT

@cheriere. I probably also would never have heard of them if I hadn't seen them and my mom had not explained what they were.

I've heard that climate change is causing them to become more scarce and changing their habitat to even higher elevations.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

cheriere — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 21:58:12 GMT

@Kachina624

Lol, I thought it was just me that didn't know about them.😃❤️

It makes me sad to think because of climate change people will probably see them less and less too.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

rockygems123 — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 22:17:33 GMT

@Kachina624

I looked them up and they're here in Colorado mostly above 8.000 ft, will have to look for the little stinkers when in the mountains.

Pretty sure it was a pika that I saw on an instagram reel....mostly to showcase their cute little sqeaky voices.

And PS while talking to my postal clerk Friday he said a friend of his in Albuquerque texted him early that morning stating their temps were already at 80 degrees.

We've had a cool down in the low 80's last couple days then back to the 90's later in the week, the break has been great. How 'bout you?

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Puggywuggy — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 22:27:21 GMT

Soo adorable!! Thank you for posting about this darling wee creature. Living below sea level in the low desert area, I have never met a Pika. We have darling little kangaroo type rats but not Pikas. Thanks for sharing @Kachina624.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Kachina624 — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 22:44:51 GMT

@rockygems123 wrote:
@Kachina624

I looked them up and they're here in Colorado mostly above 8.000 ft, will have to look for the little stinkers when in the mountains.

Pretty sure it was a pika that I saw on an instagram reel....mostly to showcase their cute little sqeaky voices.

And PS while talking to my postal clerk Friday he said a friend of his in Albuquerque texted him early that morning stating their temps were already at 80 degrees.

We've had a cool down in the low 80's last couple days then back to the 90's later in the week, the break has been great. How 'bout you?

@rockygems123. We hit 100° twice this week and about 98° every other day, in Albuquerque. Very early for it to be this hot.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

SilleeMee — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 23:25:23 GMT

I'm very familiar with pikas. In my mountain hiking days I saw many of them. They have a distinct call. They've been called 'mountain sentinels' b/c of their "EEP" calls to alert oncoming danger. Cutest things ever.

Pikas are in the rabbit family. Some people call them 'rock rabbits'. They do not hibernate. Climate change has threatened their existence.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

on the bay — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 23:53:43 GMT

@Bookplate,

Your post had me look up marmots.

I'd heard of them but have never seen one.

I got to watch the cutest videos just now on youtube of course of a marmot having a bath, a marmot eating sponge cake, eating watermelon- so many cute ones!

they are just too cute for words!

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

DSD2 — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 23:29:16 GMT

I had never heard of a pika!

He's adorable!

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Kachina624 — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 23:31:16 GMT

@on the bay. Marmot are much larger than pikas, more like a groundhog, and not as hyper. I've seen them sitting on rocks by the road just watching the cars pass by.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

on the bay — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 23:53:14 GMT

@Kachina624,

They do remind me too of groundhogs, and my possum friend even the way they eat so loudly lol! They are so cute and so placid!

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

shoekitty — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 00:25:53 GMT

Just too darn cute

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

sabatini — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 01:53:12 GMT

@Kachina624, I smiled when I saw this post. My youngest son did a report on pikas back in elementary school.

But marmots!!

Back in 2018, I was WOWED by London's Natural History Museum's Photographer of the Year award winner, Yongqing Bao.

His photograph was of a Mongolian marmot startled by a Tibetan fox.

It was titled "The Moment".

The museum described the picture as “a powerful frame of both humor and horror” that “captures the drama and intensity of nature.”

“This compelling picture captures nature’s ultimate challenge — its battle for survival,” Michael Dixon, the director of the Natural History Museum, said in a statement announcing the winners.

“Photographically, it is quite simply the perfect moment,” Roz Kidman Cox, the chairwoman of the judging panel and the former editor of BBC Wildlife Magazine, said in the statement. “The expressive intensity of the postures holds you transfixed, and the thread of energy between the raised paws seems to hold the protagonists in perfect balance.”

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Kachina624 — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 02:47:16 GMT

@sabatini. Great photo. I want to know if the marmot escaped.

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

sabatini — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 02:56:19 GMT

@Kachina624, no the marmot didn't survive. However, the photographer said that the fox had a litter of pups to feed. Circle of life.

It really was an incredible photograph!

Re: Have You Ever Met A Pika?

Estellee — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:00:30 GMT

So cute, I would admire it from a distance.