What are Pikas?
- Pikas-
- are hearty little mammals who live in rock piles high in the mountains of western North America.
They have relatives in Asia too. They are related to rabbits and are about the size of large hamsters.
Pikas have rounded ears,luxurious whiskers and no visible tails.They use "eeenncck!" and a variety of squeaks
and squeals to communicate with each other and their marmot neighbors. There are 29 species of pikas in the world.
Most of them live in Asia. During the ice ages two species came across the Bering Strait. Ochotona collaris settled
in Alaska and the Canadian Rockies. Ochotona princeps traveled south to the Sierras and Rocky Mountains in the United
States. These are the pikas the Pika Works people have been visiting for years. We will tell you more about the other pikas
of the world as time goes on. You may be interested to find out about the pikas of Japan's northern Island of Hokkaido.
