Pallas' pikas communicate with scent markings. They have scent glands under their lower jaw, which in adults is a rust color. They use these scent glands to mark legdes and twigs. They also use high-pitched whistles to communicate with other pikas and to warn of the presence of predators.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Other Communication Modes: scent marks
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Ochotona pallasi is considered at low risk or of least concern according to the IUCN Red List. It is not given protection under CITES.
The subspecies Ochotona pallasi sunidica is considered endangered and the population is expected to be reduced by half within the next ten years or three generations. The subspecies Ochotona pallasi hamica is considered critically endangered. There has been an 80% decrease in the population over the last ten years and it is continuing to decline.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Pallas's pikas can be pests where they co-occur with livestock grazing. They are also carriers of fleas that carry Yersinia pestis altaica, which causes plague.
Negative Impacts: injures humans (carries human disease); causes or carries domestic animal disease
Pallas's pikas have a positive impact on the ecosystems in which they live. Their burrow systems help to cycle soil nutrients, improving plant growth near the burrows.
Pallas's pikas are the most abundant small mammals in Gobi Guran Saykhan National Park. In parts of their range they co-occur with livestock, resulting in competition for forage. While pikas sometimes eat plants to soil level, they also aerate the soil through burrowing. Pallas's pikas are hosts for fleas, which carry the plague (Yersinia pestis) and other diseases.
Ecosystem Impact: soil aeration
Commensal/Parasitic Species:
Pallas’s pikas are herbivorous. They eat grasses in the genera Stipa and Agopyron and spireas (Spiraea). They collect grasses and other forage and form "haystacks" inside their burrows, covering them with stones and scat. These collections of forage are saved for winter when there is little food.
Pallas’s pikas eat their herbaceous food to ground level. This gives them a competitive advantage over livestock because they can eat the whole plant, not just the top of it. Occasionally, Pallas’s pikas will engage in coprophagy. This is to maintain a balance of salt in their bodies when there's a lack of free water.
Plant Foods: leaves; seeds, grains, and nuts
Other Foods: dung
Foraging Behavior: stores or caches food
Primary Diet: herbivore (Folivore )
Ochotona pallasi lives in the mountains of central Asia. It ranges from the southern parts of the Karkaralinsk Mountians south to Xinjiang, China (northeastern China). Ochotona pallasi is also found in the Altai Mountains north to Tuva in Russia. Pallas's pikas are mainly found in the country of Kazakhstan.
Biogeographic Regions: palearctic (Native )
Pallas's pikas live in mountain and steppe regions. They usually live in semi-arid areas, although they are also found in arid areas. Mean annual precipitation in these areas is approximately 130 mm.
Some common plants that live in the steppes and mountains where Pallas’s pika lives are spiraea (Spiraea hypericifolia), yellow pea trees (Caragna pygmaes) and wild roses (Rosa spp.).
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; mountains
No information could be found about the lifespan of O. pallasi. In general, pikas have short lives, with a fairly low proportion reaching 1 year of age and probably reaching a maximum of 3 years old.
Pallas's pikas are small mammals, from 175 to 200 g in weight and up to 25 cm long. They have short, rounded ears. Pallas's pikas change pelage color throughout the year. In the summer, they have a light color while in the winter the pelage becomes darker.
Range mass: 0.18 to 0.2 kg.
Range length: 25 (high) cm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
No information could be found about predators of O. pallasi. It is likely that raptors, snakes, and medium-sized mammalian predators prey on Pallas’s pikas. Pikas in general remain vigilant for predators and use high-pitched whistles to warn of predator presence. They also use their burrows and nests to avoid and escape predation.
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Pallas's pikas are monogamous, with males and females forming mating pairs.
Mating System: monogamous
Pallas’s pikas reproduce during the summer months. They have an average of 2.7 litters per year, each with an average of 5 young. Each young has a neonatal mass of about 7.0 grams. Young eat their first solid food around day 19, and are weaned soon after. Pallas’s pikas are sexually mature at about 4 weeks old.
Pallas’s pika populations occur at higher denisties in the summer than in the winter because of their high reproductive rate during warm months. There are an average of 70 pikas per ha in the summer, while there are only 30 pikas per ha in winter months.
Breeding interval: Pallas's pika have an average of 2.7 litters per year.
Breeding season: Breeding occurs throughout the warm months of the year.
Range number of offspring: 1 to 12.
Average gestation period: 25 days.
Range weaning age: 20 to 22 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 4 weeks.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 4 weeks.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous
Both parents care for their young in nests until they reach independence, within 3 to 4 weeks after birth.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-independence (Protecting: Male, Female)
Pallas's pika (Ochotona pallasi), also known as the Mongolian pika, is a species of small mammals in the pika family, Ochotonidae. It is found mainly in the mountains of western Mongolia.
Pallas's pika can range from anywhere between 175 and 200 grams (6.2 and 7.1 oz) in weight and can grow up to 25 centimetres (9.8 in) long.[3] Pallas's pikas have round bodies, very short limbs, and small rounded ears. They will also have different pelage coloration depending on the time of the year. They become lighter in the summer and much darker in the winter.[4]
O. p. pallasi can be geographically separated from the other three subspecies. O. p. pallasi is largely distributed in Kazakhstan and the other large group O. p. pricei, are distributed along Mongolia and bordering territories.[5] The range for both these groups extends all the way between the Betpak Dala Desert located in Kazakhastan to the Helan Shan Range. The remaining two, which have been little-studied, O. p. argentata collected mostly at the Helan Shan Range and the O. p. sunidica found mostly near the Chinese-Mongolian border, both of which found in rocky habitats with very restricted ranges.[5]
Pallas's pikas are much smaller in body size than other herbivores that usually share the same environment. Their body size allows them to consume more of the lower level vegetation, giving them more of an advantage over larger herbivores, such as livestock.[3] Like other pikas, Pallas's pika is herbivorous and saves grass in the summer to eat in the winter. They often construct haypiles with this stash, but some populations prefer to keep their stores under rocks. Their diet consists mostly of grasses, however their diet does range in flowers as well as stems.[3] Another form of further nutrition is the consumption of cecotrophs. Cecotrophs are the evacuated cecal contents that come from the pika.[3]
Pallas's pika mostly are found in more arid type climates. They have shown to play a role in not only seed dispersal and vegetation, but the alteration of site conditions.[6] This alteration through burrowing, has led to plant growth and increased soil nutrients. This is a clear representation of allogenic ecosystem engineering.[6]
Pallas's pikas are only monogamous. Mating is between male and females. Their litter size contains an average of 5 young and around 2.7 litters per year. Reproduction will only occur in the summer.[3] Most young by day 19 are able to consume solid food and are sexually mature as soon as 4 weeks.
The Pallas's pika and many other subspecies show a mechanism called microbial nitrogen fixation.[7] This is a very important mechanism consisting of an isolation of a bacterial community in the cecum and colon of the Pika called the nifH gene.[7] Since Pallas's pika's diet consist of such poor feed, they need to have an adaptation such as this in order to provide the essential amino acids to their diet. These essential amino acids are supplied by the microorganisms produced by microbial nitrogen fixations.[7]
There are four defined taxa: O. p. pallasi, O. p. pricei, O. p. sunidica, and O. argentata.[4] Mitochondrial studies show that the two larger defined taxa of O. pallasi are paraphyletic to O. argentata.[4] However, morphometric data shows that the taxa O. p pricei and O. p. pallasii show similar traits to one other than to O. argentata. O. argentata differ in that they show a rufous type coloration in the summer and a more silver type coloration in the winter.[4]
As a species, Pallas's pika is common. However, O. p. hamica, O. p. helanshanensis and O. p. sundica are rated as "critically endangered" and "endangered", respectively, on the IUCN Red List.
Pallas's pika (Ochotona pallasi), also known as the Mongolian pika, is a species of small mammals in the pika family, Ochotonidae. It is found mainly in the mountains of western Mongolia.
