Making Hay - More Pikas

Description:

This one's (mostly) for fun. Pikas can be pretty busy in the summertime, making haypiles, eating (and re-eating), and guarding against predators - and nosy videographers. The music is "Dragonfly" by Pearl Django - http://www.pearldjango.com/ - and it suits these lagomorphs really well. Thanks in part to their ability to withstand winter cold, pikas may be imperiled by warming climate. The evidence in this regard is as yet inconclusive, which may be why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to list the American Pika as endangered in 2009. Several science projects, including one run by the National Park Service, aim to improve our understanding of pikas and their climate sensitivity. Happily, the projects provide opportunities for citizen scientists: http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/units/ucbn/monitor/pika/pika_peril/about.cfm http://www.seventh-generation.org/citizen_science_pika.html [taxonomy:binomial=ochotona princeps]