Alpine pika

Altai pika ( Ochotona alpina)

The Altai pika ( Ochotona alpina ) is a mammal of the family of pikas ( Ochotonidae ) among lagomorphs ( Lagomorpha ). She lives in the northern mountain regions around the Gobi Desert, and east and south of Lake Baikal.

Features

The Altai pika is one with a head -body length of 15.2 to 23.5 centimeters and a weight of 226-360 grams to the larger species of pikas, with specimens from China are usually slightly smaller than the northerly occurring animals. The fur is back in the summer dark to chestnut brown; the flanks have a reddish- brown tinge. The belly is light brown to whitish- yellow. In winter the coat is pale gray - brown and the head and the rear body have yellow spots.

The skull is compact but at the same time is long and narrow. The incisor window and the palate windows are completely separated. The forehead is low and flat and the peak bone are easy unloading. The zygomatic arch is strong and on the skull a clear comb is formed.

The genome consists of a haploid set of chromosomes of 2n = 42 chromosomes.

Dissemination

The Altai pika lives in the northern mountain regions around the Gobi Desert, and east and south of Lake Baikal. It can be found in parts of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, and in the extreme northwest and northeast of the People 's Republic of China. There, the subspecies O.A. comes cinereofusca in Heilongjiang Province and the subspecies Oa nitida ago in the province of Xinjiang.

The species prefers rocky mountainous areas and tree-lined gravel plains habitat. The altitudinal distribution ranges in the Altai 400-2200 meters, in China the Altai pika lives only at altitudes above 2,000 meters.

Way of life

The Altai pika lives usually in family groups with a density of 10 to 12 animals per hectare. It is diurnal, but the calls can be heard late into the night, especially during the mating season.

It feeds generalist of the plants he collected in bales. Thereby represent mosses, pine cones and branches of a large part of the food represents the bales can thereby be quite large and the animals collect up to 30 kilograms per hectare of plant parts, making them play an important role within the ecosystem. Especially in the winter after the snowfall the plants bales are eaten by other animals, including, for example, the Altai Maral or the reindeer. One of the main predators of the Altai pika is the sable.

The Altai pika brings twice a year, an average of three pups. The gestation period amounts to about 30 days and the young at birth have a length of 5.8 to 6.0 centimeters. The life span of the animals is a maximum of about six years, but particularly in the northern part of its range, it is about three years.

System

The Altai pika is assigned as an independent species the pikas ( genus Ochotona ) and there the subgenus Pika. Some authors of the Northern Pika ( Ochotona hyperborea ) was assigned to this type, but he is among other things due to the different number of chromosomes than now own way Ochotona argentata too and the two American species Alaska pika ( Ochotona collaris ) and American pika ( Ochotona princeps) were combined with the Altai pika to a kind, but they are now all considered separate species.

Within the species can be distinguished with the nominate Ochotona alpina alpina and O. a changaica, O. and O. a cinereofusca a sushkini four subspecies. O. a sushkini was originally considered a subspecies of Ochotona pallasi.

Threats and conservation

The species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources ( IUCN) due to the large distribution area and the high inventory levels as not at risk ( " least concern "). Larger threats to Artbestand are not known.