who studies and protects pikas!

The people and oginazations who protect and study pikas

Pika Fan Club of Japan Protects Ochotona Hyperborea YesoensisThe pikas (called nakiusagi) on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido are loved and protected by the Pika Fan Club headquartered in Sapporo. The club's Web site is in Japanese, but it is fairly easy to find the pika pictures on it Pika Fan Club.One of the Fan Club's founders, Toshimi Ichikawa, has provided a story about Japan's pikas for Pika Works. It was told to her by the Little Pika of Hokkaido. Toshimi and her husband Morihiro are currently living in Boulder, Colorado pursuing studies in environmental law and conservation biology to enhance their ability to help protect the pikas and wild areas of Japan.
Two other members of the Pika Fan Club have web sites to visit. One is Yumiko Enda, who with several friends, hand sews stuffed toy pikas for the Fan Club. Visit her Nakki site. The other member is Mr. Chihiro Nakamura whose clever site called Garaba has unfortunately become unlinked. The lives of all the animals that live on Hokkaido including the pika in his high mountain home were beautifully portrayed in a NOVA program called "Island of the Spirits" that aired on PBS in October 1999.
Information about the program is still available at the PBS site.Studies of Afghan and Daurian Pikas by Dr. Takaaki MatsumotoThe Afghan and Daurian pikas have been studied by Takaaki Matsumoto, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Second Department of Physiology at Aichi Medical University in Japan. The body heat mechanisms of the pikas are his main interest in them.
Apparently pikas do not have a good way to regulate their temperature and are prone to overheating. On the flip side, they are able to stay warm in the harshest cold weather. Pikas are almost totally covered with fur from head to toe. See Dr. Matsumoto's Web Pages for some great pictures including pikas of Hokkaido taken in 1999.Andrew Smith and Colleagues at Arizona State University Study How Pikas Survive in Isolated Populations Andrew Smith , Ph.D. (pictured at right) is a population biologist who has been studying the pikas near the ghost town of Bodie, California for more than 30 years.

During the late 1990's he and colleagues, John Nagy, Ph.D. and doctoral student John Frisch have led Earthwatch research expeditions to this site to better understand how the pikas manage to survive on their tiny rock islands that are the ore dumps from abandoned mines. The mechanisms pikas use may help biologists figure out ways to protect and support other animals in the world whose well-being is threatened by encroachments of civilization into their territories. Dr. Smith has also studied the Black-lipped pikas of the Tibetan Plateau and is one of the relatively small group of pika specialists in the world. His research on Chinese pikas was written up in the China Daily Paper. He is the Chair of the Lagomorph Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union's Species Survival Commission (IUCN/SSC)