What comes to mind when you think of climate change? Rising sea levels? Extreme weather? Shrinking glaciers? It's all happening. (And no, this isn't a hippie dippy conspiracy theory. This is NASA.
Did you also think about the poor, defenseless pika? The rock rabbit of the subalpine? An animal so cute it inspired the Pokémon Pikachu.
No, you didn't. But you should.
The pika is adapted to cold climates. That's why we find them in the mountains and not the lowlands. They have a resting temperature that's just barely below their maximum temperature and they're not very good at cooling themselves. If they are exposed to temperatures above 78F they can overheat and die.
Remember when you thought about rising sea levels? Maybe you thought about low lying islands being flooded. Pikas are being flooded out, but by temperature not water. The minimum elevation where they can live in some areas has risen as much as 150 meters in the last 100 years. Pikas already live high in the mountains. As the climate warms further their habitable zone gets higher and higher. If it continues there won't be any place for them to go to escape the heat.
Needless to say, we love the pika. We've been collecting pika observations since our 2013backpacking trip in Mount Rainier National Park. For all this time, we've stopped in our tracks and pulled out cameras when we heard the telltale eeeeeps and dutifully sent the pics in. And just now... we're published scientists! Well, sort of.
The study found a pika's survival in the face of climate change may be more a function of where they are rather than what they are. In other words, genetics schmenetics. A pika that happens to live in the right place with the right rocks and plants is better suited in our new reality than a pika that can tolerate a few more degrees of heat. The study leveraged data from a variety of citizen science projects including the ASC Pika Project. Hey! That's our project!
The paper was published in the journal, Nature. You can read a summary here and find a link to the actual paper inside. And if, like me, you wanted to see proof we're legit scientists, look on page nine, the section titled, "Species records." That's right. "iNaturalist." "Adventure Scientists." Boom. Legit.
And if you want to participate, here's a taste of what what we do.
