A small but tough mammal that thrives in some of the harshest landscapes of central Asia and Siberia. A relative of rabbits and hares, pikas may look like rodents at first glance. The alpine pika is one of the less familiar species, overshadowed by its charismatic cousin, the North American pika, but it is no less fascinating—it’s a creature built for survival in cold, rocky, and high-altitude environments where few other animals can endure.

Its appearance is charming and compact: rounded ears that help conserve heat, short limbs, no visible tail, and soft brownish-gray fur that blends seamlessly into rocky slopes and scree fields. This camouflage, combined with its small size, makes the alpine pika hard to spot unless it calls—sharp, high-pitched whistles that echo across mountain valleys and cliffs.

One of the alpine pika’s most remarkable adaptations is its “haypiling” behavior. Because it does not hibernate in winter, the pika spends the warmer months feverishly collecting grasses, herbs, and other plants, which it spreads out on sunny rocks to dry like miniature haystacks. Once dried, the pika drags the bundles into burrows or crevices, creating food caches that sustain it through the frozen months when the ground is buried in snow. A single pika may gather hundreds of mouthfuls of plants in one season—an astonishing feat for such a small animal. This behavior has earned pikas nicknames like “ecosystem farmers”, since their haypiles also provide shelter and food for insects and other small animals.

Ecologically, they are keystone species: their haypiles and burrows influence plant distribution and provide microhabitats for other creatures. Unfortunately, alpine pikas face growing pressure from climate change, as warming temperatures reduce the snow cover that insulates their burrows in winter and shift the vegetation zones they depend on.

Distribution

Country

Population est.

Status

Year

Comments

China

2016

Heilongjiang, Xinjiang

Kazakhstan

2016

Mongolia

2016

Russia

2016

Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, Irkutsk, Altay