1799. Pika Lacépède, Tableau des Divisions &c., Mamm., p. 9. Type, Lepus alpinus Pallas.
1904. Pika, Lyon, Smiths. Misc. Coll., 45:438, June 15.
Characters.—Skull flattened; interorbital region wide; maxillary orifice roundly triangular; palatal foramina separate from anterior palatine foramina.
All of the living members of the family Ochotonidae belong to this genus. American pikas all belong to the subgenus Pika, which occurs also in Eurasia.
The distribution is boreal and the animals live in talus. This broken rock at the foot of a cliff provides interstices in which the animals live and store grass and herbs. These plant materials are cut for food and stacked in piles to dry in the sun, often beneath slabs of rock which protect the hay-piles from rain. Pikas are diurnal, active throughout the year, and have a characteristic call, "chickck-chickck." Young number two to five per litter.
Key to Nominal Species of Ochotona
- 1. North of 58° N latitude; underparts creamy white, without buffy wash; an indistinct grayish "collar" on shoulders
- collaris, p. [126]
- 1´. South of 58° N latitude; underparts washed with buff; no grayish "collar" on shoulders
- princeps, p. [127]