Found an animal that skillfully adapts to global warming

Most of the studies that have raised alarm about the fate of the pika are based on analysis

a small number of limited areas onoutskirts of the pika's geographic range. However, a recent comprehensive study of pikas conducted at 3,250 sites in the Great Basin found that pikas were present in more than 73% of suitable habitats surveyed. Most importantly, the pika's current habitats and those where they no longer occur had similar climatic features.

“These results show that pikas are able to tolerate a wider range of habitats than previously thought,” adds Smith.

Great Basin - desert highlands to the westNorth America, the largest basin of drainage areas on the continent. The Great Basin stretches from north to south and is bounded in the west by the Sierra Nevada ridge and the Cascade Mountains, in the east by the Rocky Mountains. The area is over 500,000 km².

Smith's most interesting discovery isthat pikas appear to be much more resilient to climate change than previously thought, allowing them to survive even in hot, low-lying areas. Bodie State Historical Park, California, Mono Craters, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, Lava Strata National Monument, and Columbia River Gorge (all hot lowlands) maintain active populations of pikas, demonstrating adaptability and resilience. The animals cope with high temperatures by retreating into their cool, screeted underground habitat during hot daytime hours and supplementing their limited daytime feeding with nighttime activity.

This does not mean that some populations of pikas are notreached their limit, which led to their disappearance from some habitats. Smith's review highlights that most of the documented local deaths of pika populations have occurred in small, isolated habitats.

In his work, Smith stresses the importance ofthe inclusion of all aspects of the behavior and ecology of a species when considering its conservation status, and that all available data should be considered before assuming that a species is going extinct. For American pikas, the data convincingly shows that instead of facing extinction, American pikas are changing their behavior to better withstand climate change, at least for now.

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