American Pika at Mount Rainier

NPS says the American pika (Ochotona princeps) is a small herbivore related to rabbits and hares. Pikas live in talus — patches of broken rock — in western North American mountains. They do not hibernate. They collect ferns, grasses, forbs, shrub bits, and conifer twigs into haypiles for winter food. Thick fur and a high metabolism help them through alpine winters, which also makes them prone to overheating. NPS cites research that just two hours above 28°C (82.4°F) can be fatal.

Mount Rainier National Park began monitoring pikas in 2007. With volunteers and seasonal staff, about 900 individual pika sites have been identified, each a distinct talus patch that may hold one or more territories. Surveyors look and listen for pikas and search for haypiles and peppercorn-sized scat. Up to 35 individual pikas have been observed in a single talus patch. They occupy talus from a few boulders to patches larger than a soccer field. NPS says the Rainier data have not yet been analyzed to say whether numbers are stable, rising, or falling.

NPS’s Olympic mountain-goat page notes that pika never colonized the Olympics, which have long been isolated from the Cascades. The sources below are National Park Service pages.