Transcript Pikas - lenskij4

By Phineas the Pika with Help
From Ryan the Human
Phineas the Pika
2202 West Royle’s Rockslide
Alpine Life Zone, CO 80121
Age: 5
Food: flowers and grass
Place: Hot Rock
Time of the Year: Summer (Sunbathing)
©December 2, 2010
Phineas and Ryan Bennett. No parts of this essay may be
copied without permission. From Ryan or Phineas. If you
copied you will receive 222, 000,000 signatures from Mrs.
Jones.
Did you know that pikas don’t hibernate? They stay
active all winter. I’m excited to enlighten you about a
pikas fascinating family life, amazing protection, brilliant
habitat, delicious food, and unusual description.
I’m always on the lookout, even while I
sunbathe!
Once a pika is full grown he/she must find their own
feeding grounds.
Us pikas aren’t very massive, we’re actually the exact opposite.
When I was born I measured about 6 inches long, but now I’m 12 inches
long. I can survive 4-7 years, and I weigh only 14 ounces (I used to only
weigh 4 ounces)! I don’t like admitting this, but pika males are exactly the
same size as female pikas. My ears are short and round, and my fur is
ash gray. Since I’m a collard pika, and I also have a stripe of white fur
around my neck. A pika isn’t the only name for me. I could be known as
a mouse hare, a piping hare, a whistling hare, or little chief hare by the
Chipewyan people (I know, a lot of hares). Other names that don’t involve
“hare” in it for a me is a Coney, and a Rock Rabbit. Even though my thick
fur coat keeps me from freezing in the winter, my coat also camouflages
with the rocks I reside in. Every June I molt, the coat underneath my
fluffy
and shaggy winter coat is a thinner coat for the hot summer.
Two weeks after I molt my new thinner and smoother coat will become
complete.
Unlike bears I stay active all winter.
I dig tunnels through the snow to
my food.
Pikas, like me, have tails that are so
diminutive that most humans believe
that we’re tailless.
Even though my thick fur coat keeps me from
freezing in the winter, my coat also
camouflages with the rocks I reside in.
I may appear adorable and cuddly to humans, but that doesn’t
stop any of my predators.. I have a wonderful protection, mostly
because animal in Colorado that’s a carnivore wants to devour me. My
most dangerous predators are Great Horned Owls, and weasels. A
Great Horned Owls can fly almost silently through the air, making it
hard for me to spot them, even though somehow I always do. If I’m
alert and observant, and I glance up and see a predator, like an Owl, I
will squeak a warning to the other pikas living in the area, and once
they here the warning they will scurry into there home. But if I don’t
glance up then the Owl will dive, snatch up a pika (or me), and
triumphantly bring him/her to its nest for a juicy snack. Even though a
owl is dangerous, the animal that is even more dangerous than that is a
weasel. They are narrow enough that they can fit into my home and
catch me in my own home (they’re not very courteous, are they)! Pikas
don’t own any special adaptations to protect ourselves, but, what we do
have is a reliable and trustworthy security system. If one pika locates
a predator than he/she will warn everybody else about the predator.
Weasels and Owls aren’t the only
predators on the lookout for a pika,
other predators are foxes, minks,
bears and wolves.
Pikas don’t own any special adaptations to protect
ourselves, but, what we do have is a reliable and
trustworthy security system. If one pika locates a
predator than he/she will warn everybody else
about the predator.
My favorite foods are delicious flowers and grass (which I savor)
but sometimes I might consume my own droppings (I know, it sounds
putrid, but my dung is actually rich in vitamins)! I’m a herbivore which
means I only munch on plants. In the spring and early summer I will
sprint many trips from my home to my feeding grounds to stock up
on food again. Some adult pikas travel with children, other (like me
since I’m a male, and females are the ones who take care of the
babies) go alone. It tastes better to me to devour fresh food than the
stale hay I have to consume in the winter. I take only a couple of
minutes to avoid any lingering predators (I’m really terrified of being
eaten). Almost no plants grow in the winter, so I make a haystack for
the winter. When I harvest the hay I will use my mouth to pull plants
out of the ground. Just like a beaver, my teeth never stop growing.
Sometimes the bunch of plants that I
pull out of the ground is as big as me!
Even though I’m a herbivore, I
don’t eat all plants, only soft
ones, like flowers and grasses.
My habitat is full of rocks, rocks, and more rocks! I
reside in tunnels under rockslides. The tunnels are far
underground so that it’s harder for my predators to catch
me underground. My trail from my house to my feeding
ground can sometimes grow to 66 feet long! When making
a haystack (pile of dried grass) I will dash along my trail to
my feeding grounds many times a day to grab food for my
haystack. The hard working pikas (like me can add one
inch of hay to my haystack each day. Most of the time I will
place the haystack right outside my home so I don’t have
to travel far to much on food in the winter.
When I make my haystack for the winter it
can reach up to 24 inches tall, and 36 inches
wide! That might not sound like a lot to you,
but that’s colossal to us pikas.
Even though you might not think so, my relatives are hares and rabbits. I have a
elated family that is full with mating and babies. Unlike bears, I don’t hibernate, instead, I
will stay active all winter. I dig a tunnel from my den to my haystack when the snow covers
the ground. Near the end of winter, I may run out of food, If I do, I will start living off the
lichens living off the rocks. You may believe that since I’m trapped under frosty snow in the
winter, that I might suffocate (which would be a catastrophe) but, there are tiny little air
pockets in the snow that allows me to breath. In early spring I’m very cautious, it has been
safe all winter long, but now I need to adjust to life of predators. Also, now I have to search
for a mate (I know, it makes me horrified just thinking about it). This might sound weird to
you, (literally if you’re hiking in the mountains) but I sing to attract a mate. Once I mate, the
first babies will be born approximately 30 days after I mated. Once those babies are born, I
will mate again, while the female that I mated before looked after the newborns. The
second series of babies will be born in the summer. The pregnant mother may have
between two and six babies; the newborns lack fur when they are born. When the babies
are first born they aren’t very exuberant, but in about a week their senses start to work,
their eyes and ears open for the first time (they look ridiculous to me). Only 50 days after
born the newborns will become adults. As the babies grow their mother stops little by little
watching over them; instead of watching, she will venture out of the den to have some
peacefulness, away from the jittery and jumpy newborns. Life is tough for baby pikas,
some die of cold and others are eaten by predators. Those who survive all of those
hardships are chased out off their den by their mother when they become adults. They are
forced to discover their own feeding grounds, a new home, and start to gather food for the
upcoming winter.
Do you see the pika in this picture? Its
camouflaged coat keeps it so well hidden
that most predators wouldn’t notice it.
Pikas love to sunbathe, which is perfect
because we live right under rocks that are
perfect for just that thing!
Pikas survive 4-7 years, possess a built in security
system, reside underneath rockslides, consume plants, and
sing to attract a mate. This makes pikas an outstanding
Colorado animal. Pikas are a truly amazing animal, their
habitat is destroyed in some places, but somehow they just
won’t accept extinction.
If you see me don’t pick up and bring
me home. I always become sick and die
within a few weeks. Just take a picture
and leave.
Help pikas so pikas
don’t become extinct.
Nickles, Greg. Pikas, Danbury, CT: Grolier, 2001.
Miller, Sara S. Rabbits, Pikas, and Hares. Franklin Watts, 2002.
Webliographies
All about pikas at Pika Works. n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2010.
Image Locations
http://thisiskat.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/collared_pika_medium.jpg
http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/data/media/1/endangered-pika_1557.jpg
http://www.nps.gov/archive/grsa/resources/images/photos/pika01.jpg
http://www.treehugger.com/20090420-american-pika.jpg
http://depts.washington.edu/natmap/photos/mammals/pika_5946np.jpg
http://www.cpaws-southernalberta.org/events/pics/coffey-pika-large.jpg
http://c1.ecolocalizer.com/files/2009/07/american-pika.jpg
http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/A7/A72DA35B-34B4-4481-A0F68E58187E2A82/Presentation.Medium/American-pika-running-over-snow.jpg
http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/C691940F-4786-4247-937E30F7951BA2F7/RF003462.jpg
http://ih1.redbubble.net/work.488800.3.flat,220x200,075,t.jpg
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/files/storyphotos/Pika_Habitat.jpg?0
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_GeX70u05z6k/Sq3rJvE8-mI/AAAAAAAAdsA/TKe1l-PAZK8/DSC02956.JPG
http://www.environmentyukon.gov.yk.ca/wildlifebiodiversity/mammals/images/pika.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3453/3776649487_dfe21e50ac.jpg
http://ih2.redbubble.net/work.4261160.1.flat,135x135,075,t.jpg