American pika: status and vulnerability to Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease
Peralta A , Borgman E, Ray C . 2024. American pika: status and vulnerability to Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease. National Park Service
The American pika (Ochotona princeps), also known as the rock rabbit or mouse hare, is closely related to rabbits and hares, but lives in an unusual habitat. In Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (NPP), pikas live mainly at high elevations in piles of broken rock called taluses. Within taluses, temperatures can be warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the surrounding air, allowing pikas to adapt to a relatively narrow temperature range. Climate change is predicted to threaten pikas, and some populations have already been lost. Exotic disease might also threaten pikas. A deadly new form of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHDV2) is spreading worldwide and has been found in dead rabbits and hares near Great Sand Dunes NPP. In 2022, the Inventory and Monitoring Division funded a survey of pikas, rabbits and hares in the park to better understand where pikas occur and where they might be exposed to RHDV2 through contact with rabbits and hares. This one page resource brief summarizes the inventory findings.
- Type
- Resource Brief
- Authors
- Peralta, Airy; Borgman, Erin; Ray, Chris
- Date of Issue
- 2024-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GRSA
- Keywords
- American pika, inventory, National Park Service, NPS, NPS Inventory and Monitoring Division, NPS Species Inventory Program, rabbit hemorrhagic disease, RHDV2, rocky mountain network, ROMN Wildlife Inventory, species inventory, survey