There are different species of Pika that inhabit territory in China, Canada, India, Nepal, Mongolia and the the United States. One is the Collared Pika that inhabits the Arctic tundra and is similar in appearance to the American Pika. In the Yukon Delta region the Pika inhabit areas in all directions except north.
The Collared Pika, about the same size as a tennis ball is about seven inches long. The Back of the Collared Pika is brown with gray coloring on its sides. It shows a light gray collaring on its neck and shoulders. This makes it look like it has a collar, hence its name. The animal has an ivory colored stomach and its ears are dark brown with the edges of the ear showing white. Its tail is not able to be seen.
It inhabits the sloping masses of rock fragrants below a tapering cliff across most of the mountainous regions of Western North America in Southeastern Alaska to the Mackenzie District of the Northwest Territory. All of a sudden hikers and climbers will hear a soft peep signaling the presence of a Pika nearby.
At first glance the Collared Pika looks more like a mouse than like a rabbit. It is classified in the rabbit order, Lagomorpha because of its two front incisors. Also like rabbits and hares it eats its food twice. Through their digestive system the animals take in key minerals like vitamin B12.
The Pika uses the jumbled rocks of talus slopes for protecting its home and eating on the slopes of its food supply that is usually close to home. The diet of the Collared Pika consists of a variety of greens like mountain avens, lupines, vetch, dwarf huckleberry, kinnikinnik and grasses. As the summer descends upon the tundra the Pika saves extra food in a haystack type pile. The Pika needs these food caches as it does not hibernate in the winter and these haystacks supply them with food during the long cold months of the tundra.
The center of a Pika's territory is its haystack. Their entire habitat covers an area of about 400 square feet. They prefer to have individual haystacks from 65 to 200 feet apart on rocky slopes.
The Collared Pika mates in the spring time and has one litter of two to six young each year The Pika makes up for its loss of population to predators by having two to five young in the late spring and sometimes another litter in the middle of the summer months. The young Pikas stay with its parents in the summer months and then finds a vacant territory by early autumn.
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