Common Pika
Ochotona princeps

On a sunny talus slope, a hiker discovers a skein of grasses, laid out neatly in the summer warmth. A few stones away, there is a bouquet of flowers, now quite dry. Suddenly, a little furry animal appears, scoops up the flowers, and disappears into the jumbled rocks. This is the Common Pika, preparing for a long winter, in a short summer.

Pikas are closely related to rabbits, but they have tidy, rounded ears, and no visible tail; they look a little like guinea pigs. They are equipped with typical rodent incisors, but also have smaller secondary incisors just behind the main pair. Pikas are found from sea level to almost 3,000 meters, but they are strongly associated with the higher elevations. Unlike some other alpine mammals, pikas do not use hibernation to get them through the winter. Instead, they harvest grasses and other plants through the summer, stacking them to cure in the sun.

Later, the little pika haystacks are taken under the shelter of the rocks, where they can be accessed throughout the winter. The pika will also do a little grazing in tunnels under the snow.

Through the summer, though, they are busy with their foraging. When intruders appear, they may give a nasal call, or sometimes a series of bark-like notes. Pikas raise from two to six young per brood, and there is some evidence that suggests that there may be two broods in some years, in spring and summer.

The Common Pika is represented in British Columbia by eight subspecies, which vary somewhat in colour from pale brown to very dark. They are found generally in the mountains of the southern half of the province, but extend to sea level on the south coast; they are absent from Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte group. One subspecies, known only from the west Chilcotin area, is ranked "imperilled" in B.C. by the province's Conservation Data Centre.

Pikas are absent from the northern half of the province, except for the extreme northwestern corner. Here, the more northern Collared Pika (Ochotona collaris) occurs.