Dharamshala, 20th July: The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau’s winter is harsh for pikas. Temperatures in the desolate, windswept highlands regularly fall below –30° Celsius, causing the grass that normally nourishes the rabbit-like creatures to become dry and brittle. When food is scarce, the little, rabbit-like animals, often compared to Pokémon’s Pikachu figure, slow their metabolism and consume yak feces to survive on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, researchers report July 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Pikas are tiny animals that can be found in both North America and Asia. According to the video game website Kotaku, they are frequently confused with Pikachu, a Pokémon with a similar name. However, Pikachu’s original design was inspired by a squirrel.
Plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) inhabit high-altitude meadows at elevations of up to 16,400 feet (5,000 meters). Because they don’t hibernate or migrate to warmer locations in the winter, it’s been a mystery how they endure the cold.
In the summer and winter, John Speakman, an ecophysiologist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and colleagues evaluated the daily energy consumption of 156 plateau pikas and implanted 27 animals with temperature sensors. Many non-hibernating animals use more energy to stay warm in the winter, but these pikas did the opposite. Pikas’ metabolism was lowered by 29.7% on average, thanks in part to their bodies being cooled a few degrees overnight. In comparison to July, the animals were also less active.
Pikas were more plentiful but less active at yak-infested locations. This perplexed the researchers until they discovered a half-eaten yak turd in one of the burrows, according to Speakman. Eating feces can make you sick. With few other options, yak feces might be a plentiful, easily digestible meal that “massively reduces the amount of time [pikas] need to spend on the surface,” he claims.
Pikas were recorded on video scarfing spit, and DNA evidence from stomach contents confirmed that this is a typical activity. It’s unclear whether eating dung has any drawbacks, but it’s apparent that pika isn’t choosy eaters.
Image Source: MSN
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