AOTM - American Pika

-----------------------------------------

Hello AA!

Welcome to the January animal of the month!

This month we will be learning/reading about the American Pika!

The American Pika (pronounced pi-ca) is also called as the common names: cony, rock rabbit, mouse hare, whistling hare, and piping hare as those are just its nicknames for say. The American Pika is just 1 out of the 29 species of pikas there are.

------------------------------------------

Credit

-----------------------------------------

Scientific name

Ochotona princeps (Pronunciation = Oh-cho-tona Pren-ceps)

Kingdom

Animalia

Order

Lagomorphs

Conservation Status

Least concern

Family

Ochotonidae

Class

Mammalia

Lifespan

Average 3-4 years

-----------------------------------------

Credit

-----------------------------------------

Habitat

They live where places are rocky and well places to rest, hide, and eat. Pikas inhabit mountainous regions from the western United States and from Canada, the Rocky Mountains  from northern New Mexico to central British Columbia, the Great Basin, and the Sierra Nevada of California through the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington!

Diet

The Pika is a herbivore that stays active year round even in winter surpingly, It helps itself survive the cold winter by eating dried vegetation they have stored away in haypiles. They graze on the alpine grasses, sedges, thistles, fireweed, cushion plants and lichens.

Breeding info

One of their breeding habits are mating as yearlings, also their breeding system is to have monogamous (having one mate at a time). Females give birth to 3 young per litter and they have 2 litters per-year.

Appearance

The American Pika are rodent-like mammals. Pikas have short, stout bodies with big, round ears and they don't have a visible tail. Pikas have a brown and black coloration of fur and some have a rust color sprinkled on them. They have long whiskers which are a few inches long. And males are slightly bigger then females.

Size range

Their body lengths range from 162 to 216 mm (mm stands for millimeter in case people didnt know) (6.4 to 8.5 inches).

Personality

The American pika is active in the day. It spends most of the day looking for food; guarding their territory; watching for predators, The pika is very vocal and social animal.

-----------------------------------------

Credit

-----------------------------------------

Predators/Threats

The major threats for them include climate change, livestock grazing, and human disturbance. And their Predators are eagles, hawks, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and weasels and even themselves, if they aren't careful they can start sunning itself on the rocks.

Fun small facts

-They are the size of a fist

-they might look like very furry rats but they are more related to rabbits and hares

-the small bounds of fur are surprisingly very territorial

-pikas are famously vocal. They chirp, sing, and scream in an effort to protect their territory

-----------------------------------------

That ends our blog for this month's AOTM! Hope you guys enjoyed learning about these little guys make sure to check out the AOTM quiz! ! And Happy New Years!!!

background/click link to read more