| Distinguishing
Characteristics: |
- "rock" rabbit looks like
a guinea pig with big ears but is a relative of common rabbit
- will shriek (eep) when alarmed and
to protect territory
- has visible tail with large round ears
fringed in white
calls are ventriloquistic
|
| Body Size: |
- small yet stocky, measuring 18 cm (7
in long)
|
| Weight: |
|
| Colour: |
- light orangish-brown, grizzled touches
of black, grey and dark brown on backs to help them blend into
rocky homes
|
| Habitat Preference: |
- high in alpine, among boulder-strewn
fields and slopes
- live in network of paths they establish
beneath rocks and snow
- crevices are handy in summer to escape
predators like the golden eagles
|
| Behavioural Attributes
of Mammal: |
- live in loosely associated colonies,
pikas are territorial and defend both their home range and food
cache
|
| Diet: |
- pikas eat grasses, greens and lichens
- spend day stockpiling vegetation in
clumps all over rocks to let it dry out.-when hay is dry, pika
will take it and store it in burrow beneath rocks in preparation
for long winter ahead
- valuable resource and essential to
pika's survival in winter, since they do not hibernate
- pikas will eat special partially digested
pellets
- do not reingest normal feces
|
| Babies: |
- produce 3-5 young each spring
- second litters later in the summer
are common, few of the second batch survive due to short interval
to gather food for upcoming winter.
- young are furry, mobile, and precocious
|
| Causes of Mortality: |
- golden eagles, smaller weasels
|
