[pct-l] Pikas

[waynekraft at verizon.net (Wayne Kraft)]

Monte Dodge said:

"Just read in the daily rag here in Olympia about how Pikas are now disappearing at an alarming rate. Studies compared between now and 1995 show in 25 study areas, 7 show no populations of Pikas where they were found in 1995.  ( Global Warming thought to be the cause) North of Snoqualmie Pass only a few miles North on the PCT is a healthy number of these small creatures who are easy to hear but hard to see!! Bring a long len as my 35mm by 105 mm mini Olympus 300 shows only brown specks in pics where a Pika should be!!"

From: Persistence of Pikas in the Low-Elevation National Monuments in the Western United States by Dr. Eric Beever (the very same Dr.Beever whose study is getting play in your "local rag") :
"Pikas are small (100-175 g [4-6 oz]) mammals typically found in talus and other rocky habitats such as lava formations and mine tailings (fig. 1). Paleoecological evidence suggests that pikas were far more widespread during the late Pleistocene in western North America than they are today (Grayson 1987). Climatic warming during the past 10,000 years led to the extirpationof most low-elevation pika populations, producing the modern-day relictual distribution of the species."

Apparently this global warming Dr. Beever is talking about started 10,000 years ago.  Clearly, those danged Indian fellas must have driven across the Bering Strait in giant, gas-guzzling, ozone-depleting SUV's!  On the other hand, maybe these little ice age mammals have done really well to survive so long after we began to emerge from the last ice age.  They've probably left Snoqualmie Pass and are hanging out incognito in an air conditioned movie theater in Seattle.  Hey, stop your whistlin', Shorty, I can't hear the movie!  I coulda sworn I had more popcorn than this!  What's goin' on here?  

Wayne Kraft