Pikas, or senostavtsy, in my opinion, are one of the most touching lagomorphs. I don't remember exactly when I found out about them, but since then the thought of going on an expedition to get acquainted with these animals has never left me. And while winter and pikas are sleeping (no, they are not, but more on that later) underground, there is time to study in more detail everything that is known about them.
So, pikas, they are senostavtsy or senostavki, genus Ochotona. Mammals from the order of Lagomorphs (in addition to pikas, they also identified hares and rabbits in the order). There are also pika birds (Certhia, also, by the way, very interesting group), but about them some other time.
Habit. The length of the senostavts is about 20 centimeters, the tail is small and practically invisible. They look like little hares or hamsters. In summer, the skin is brown-motley, in winter it is light.
Pikas - cutest creatures Spreading. Senostavians live in North America(2 species), Europe (1 species) and Asia (many species, from the Volga region to Myanmar). In Russia we have 7 species. The steppes of the Orenburg region and Kazakhstan are the closest to Moscow. That's about where I'm thinking of going. Just in case, a distribution map, what if pikas live near you?
Distribution of pikas in Eurasia Eating behavior. We come to the most interesting. Pikas are herbivores. The animals do not include any vegetation in their menu, but by evaluating nutritional value every kind of grass. According to special studies (Chapman and Flux, 1991; Fitzgerald, et al., 1994), Senostavans prefer herbs that are high in protein and lipids, as well as high calorie content. In addition, juicy food is held in high esteem, due to which pikas in some regions can do without water at all. Plants containing toxins are not consumed by animals, but they can be stored for the winter. The fact is that these toxins act as preservatives and help keep stocks fresh for the whole winter. During storage, toxic substances from plant tissues they disintegrate and such "canned foods" become edible.
Pikas collect hay for the winter 
Haystack haystack Origin of name. Why Senostavtsy? Because they store up their provisions by stacking little haystacks! Hay is harvested in summer, and up to 30 types of grasses were found in the stack. The height of such a "hayloft" can reach 30 centimeters!
Why pikas? Everything is simple here: upon seeing a predator, the pika emits a piercing squeak, warning the rest of the group about the danger.
Senostavka looks out for a predator. Lifestyle. Pikas live in groups in burrows or crevices between stones and roots big trees... Each "family" has its own territory, which is indicated by chemical tags and, of course, haystacks. Both species of American pika are antisocial, living alone, and gathering together only for breeding.
In addition to residential burrows, temporary burrows are often found on the territory, apparently, they are used to hide from predators. They hibernate in long burrows and feed on stored hay. Periodically, tunnels are laid under the snow, where they walk, collecting snowy vegetation and lichens. They can also eat bark and needles as food additives.
Procurement of supplies begins in the middle of summer Reproduction occurs in summer, the female gives out 2 litters of ten small pikas. The gestation period is almost a month. Senostavts become adults at the age of six weeks. And pikas live in nature for 3-7 years.
Like hamsters. Due to their ability to store hay for the winter, pikas are also called hay storing.
Description
Pikas are small animals that look like hamsters, however, in reality they are close relatives of hares with short legs, rounded ears and tails that are completely invisible from the outside. The length of the ears in most species does not exceed half the length of the head.
Body length is approximately 18-20 cm. The tail is less than 2 cm long and is invisible from the outside. Vibrissae ("whiskers") are very long, in some species they noticeably exceed the length of the head. The pads of the fingers are bare, or covered with hair brushes. The fur is almost monochromatic: in summer, it is brown, sandy or red; more often gray in winter. The weight adult from 75 and 290 grams, depending on the type.
Habitat
Pikas prefer to live in cold climates. Some species live on rocky mountain slopes in scree, where there are numerous crevices to hide from predators, others dig holes. Several species of pikas live in the steppe. Their burrows can sometimes be very complex and have several chambers for different purposes - nesting, for storing stocks, etc. Mountain species most adapted to living in stony biotopes (big-eared, red), settling on large-stony taluses, do not dig holes at all and arrange nests only in cavities between stones and in cracks of crumbling rocks. Altai pikas can also settle outside talus, under the roots of trees, in heaps of dead wood, where they expand and clear the passages of their shelters. Digging holes is most common in steppe inhabitants- black-lipped, Daurian, Mongolian and steppe pikas.
All types in varying degrees colonial. Dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of animals can live in settlements. The settlements are several hundred meters apart, sometimes kilometers apart. In case of danger, an audible alarm is displayed - a loud whistle or chirping (depending on the degree of danger).
Classification
- Genus Pikukha ( Ochotona)
- Subgenus Northern pikas ( Pika)
- Subgenus Pikukha bush steppes ( Ochotona)
- Gansu pika ( Ochotona cansus )
- Black-lipped pika ( Ochotona curzoniae)
- Daurian pika ( Ochotona dauurica)
- Qinling pika ( Ochotona huangensis )
- Nubra pika ( Ochotona nubrica )
- Steppe pika ( Ochotona pusilla), or small pika
- Reddish pika ( Ochotona rufescens )
- Tibetan pika ( Ochotona thibetana)
- Thomas' pike ( Ochotona thomasi )
- Subgenus Mountain pikas ( Conothoa)
- Chinese pika ( Ochotona erythrotis)
- Forrest's Pika ( Ochotona forresti )
- Yunnan pika ( Ochotona gaoligongensis )
- Kamskaya pika ( Ochotona gloveri)
- Himalayan pika ( Ochotona himalayana )
- Eli pika ( Ochotona iliensis )
- Kozlov's pike ( Ochotona koslowi )
- Ladakh pika ( Ochotona ladacensis)
- Big-eared pika ( Ochotona macrotis )
- Moulian pika ( Ochotona muliensis )
- Ochotona nigritia
- Indian pika ( Ochotona roylei ), or Royly's pika
- Red pika ( Ochotona rutila)
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Notes (edit)
- // Wilson D. E. & Reeder D. M. (editors). 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). - Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.) ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0
- Grigorieva T.V., Formozov N.A., Surin V.L., 2007 ... Molecular taxonomy of pikas of the subgenus Pika(Ochotona, Lagomorpha) and the new kind pikas - Ochotona mantchurica- in the fauna of Russia // Theriofauna of Russia and adjacent territories. (VIII Congress of the Teriological Society). Materials of the Intern. Meeting. Moscow: KMK Scientific Publishing Association. P. 104.
- Sokolov V.E. A five-language dictionary of animal names. Mammals. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of Acad. V.E.Sokolova. - M .: Rus. yaz., 1984. - S. 204. - 10,000 copies.
- Formozov N.A., Baklushinskaya I. Yu., Ma Yun Taxonomic status of the Alashan pika, Ochotona argentata(Alashan ridge, Ningxia-Hui autonomous region, China) // Zoological Journal. - 2004 .1. Volume 83, No. 8. - S. 995-1007. - ISSN 0044-5134
- On the species status of the Hentei pika ( Ochotona hoffmanni Formozov et al., 1996) and its introduction into the fauna of Russia // Byull. Moscow Islands of nature testers. Dept. Biol. - 1999 ... - T. 104 - Issue. 5. - S. 68-72.
- Formozov N.A., Baklushinskaya I. Yu. Manchurian pika ( Ochotona mantchurica scorodumovi) from the Shilka-Argun interfluve: karyotype and questions of taxonomy of pikas in the Amur region and adjacent territories // Zoological journal, vol. 90, no. 4, April 2011 , Pp. 490-497.
- Lisovskiy A.A. 2004 ... Turukhansk pika ( Ochotona turuchanensis) / In the book. Fauna of vertebrates of the Putorana plateau. Ed. A. A. Romanov. Moscow. 475 s.
- The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia. "Mammals" Book. 2 = The New Encyclopedia of Mammals / ed. D. MacDonald. - M .: "Omega", 2007. - S. 440. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-465-01346-8.
- Vakurin A.A., Korablev V.P. Karyotype of the Qin-ling pika Ochotona huangensis Mtschie, 1908 (lagomorpha, Ochotonidae) // Theriofauna of Russia and adjacent territories. M. 2011.S. 83
- Formozov N.A., Baklushinskaya I. Yu., Surin V.L. Phylogeny of pikas (Ochotona, Lagomorpha) according to karyosystematics and molecular structure of BCR and PBGD gene regions // Theriofauna of Russia and adjacent territories (VII Congress of the Theriological Society). 2003 , P. 370.
- Formozov N.A. Is there a rare Ilya pika ( Ochotona iliensis) in Dzhungarskiy Alatau? // Selevinia. - 1996 /1997 ... - S. 235-238.
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Excerpt from Pikas (mammals)
But before the princess had time to look at the face of this Natasha, she realized that this was her sincere companion in grief, and therefore her friend. She rushed to meet her and, embracing her, wept on her shoulder.As soon as Natasha, who was sitting at the head of Prince Andrei, learned of Princess Marya's arrival, she quietly left his room with those quick, as it seemed to Princess Marya, as if with merry steps and ran to her.
On her agitated face, when she ran into the room, there was only one expression - an expression of love, of boundless love for him, for her, for everything that was close to a loved one, an expression of pity, suffering for others and a passionate desire to give all of herself for in order to help them. It was evident that at that moment not a single thought about herself, about her relationship to him was in Natasha's soul.
The sensitive Princess Marya, at the first glance on Natasha's face, understood all this and cried with sorrowful pleasure on her shoulder.
“Let's go, let's go to him, Marie,” Natasha said, leading her to another room.
Princess Marya raised her face, wiped her eyes and turned to Natasha. She felt that from her she would understand and learn everything.
“What…” she began the question, but suddenly stopped. She felt that words could neither ask nor answer. Natasha's face and eyes should have said more and more clearly.
Natasha looked at her, but seemed to be in fear and doubt - to say or not to say everything that she knew; She seemed to feel that before those radiant eyes that penetrated into the very depths of her heart, it was impossible not to say the whole, the whole truth in which she saw her. Natasha's lip suddenly trembled, ugly wrinkles formed around her mouth, and she burst into sobs and covered her face with her hands.
Princess Marya understood everything.
But she still hoped and asked in words in which she did not believe:
- But how is his wound? In general, what position is he in?
- You, you ... will see, - only Natasha could say.
They sat for some time downstairs near his room in order to stop crying and enter him with calm faces.
- How did the whole illness go? How long has it gotten worse? When did it happen? - asked Princess Marya.
Natasha said that at first there was a danger from fever and suffering, but in Trinity this passed, and the doctor was afraid of one thing - Antonov's fire. But this danger, too, was over. When we arrived in Yaroslavl, the wound began to fester (Natasha knew everything about suppuration, etc.), and the doctor said that suppuration could go right. A fever developed. The doctor said that this fever is not so dangerous.
“But two days ago,” Natasha began, “suddenly it happened…” She held back her sobs. “I don’t know why, but you will see what he has become.
- Weakened? lost weight? .. - asked the princess.
- No, not that, but worse. You will see. Ah, Marie, Marie, he is too good, he cannot, he cannot live ... because ...
When Natasha, with her habitual movement, opened his door, letting the princess in front of her, Princess Marya already felt ready sobs in her throat. No matter how much she prepared herself, no matter how hard she tried to calm down, she knew that she would not be able to see him without tears.
Princess Marya understood what Natasha understood in words: it happened two days ago. She understood that this meant that he had suddenly softened, and that these softening, these tenderness were signs of death. Approaching the door, she already saw in her imagination that face of Andryusha, which she had known from childhood, gentle, meek, tender, which he had so rarely had and therefore always had such a strong effect on her. She knew that he would say quiet, tender words to her, like those that her father had told her before he died, and that she could not bear it and would burst into tears over him. But, sooner or later, it had to be, and she entered the room. The sobs came closer and closer to her throat, while with her short-sighted eyes she made out more clearly and more clearly his form and searched for his features, and so she saw his face and met his gaze.
He was lying on the sofa, covered with pillows, in a fur squirrel robe. He was thin and pale. One thin, transparent white hand he was held by a handkerchief, with the other he, with quiet movements of his fingers, touched his thin, overgrown mustache. His eyes were looking at those who entered.
Seeing his face and meeting his gaze, Princess Marya suddenly moderated the speed of her step and felt that her tears had suddenly dried up and her sobs had stopped. Catching the expression on his face and look, she suddenly felt intimidated and felt guilty.
"But what am I to blame for?" She asked herself. “In the fact that you live and think about living things, and I! ..” - answered his cold, stern look.
There was almost hostility in his deep, not out of himself, but in himself, when he slowly looked around at his sister and Natasha.
He kissed his sister hand in hand, according to their habit.
- Hello, Marie, how did you get there? - he said in a voice as even and alien as his gaze was. If he had screamed with a desperate cry, this cry would have terrified Princess Mary less than the sound of this voice.
- And you brought Nikolushka? He said, also evenly and slowly, and with an obvious effort to remember.
- How is your health now? - said Princess Marya, herself surprised at what she was saying.
`` This, my friend, you have to ask the doctor, '' he said, and, apparently making another effort to be gentle, he said with one mouth (it was obvious that he did not think what he was saying): `` Merci, chere amie , d "etre venue. [Thank you dear friend for coming.]
Princess Marya shook his hand. He winced slightly at the squeeze of her hand. He was silent, and she did not know what to say. She understood what had happened to him in two days. In his words, in his tone, especially in this gaze - a cold, almost hostile gaze - there was a terrible alienation for a living person from everything worldly. He evidently had difficulty understanding all living things now; but at the same time it was felt that he did not understand the living, not because he was deprived of the power of understanding, but because he understood something else, something that the living did not understand and could not understand and that absorbed him in everything.
- Yes, that's how strange fate brought us together! He said, breaking the silence and pointing at Natasha. - She keeps following me.
Princess Marya listened and did not understand what he was saying. He, sensitive, gentle Prince Andrew, how could he say this with the one he loved and who loved him! If he had thought to live, he would have said it in a less coldly offensive tone. If he did not know that he was going to die, how could he not feel sorry for her, how could he say this in front of her! One explanation could only be for this, this is that he did not care, and all the same because something else, the most important, was revealed to him.
The conversation was cold, incoherent, and interrupted incessantly.
“Marie drove through Ryazan,” Natasha said. Prince Andrew did not notice that she was calling his sister Marie. And Natasha, when he called her that, for the first time noticed it herself.
- Well, what then? - he said.
- She was told that Moscow was all burned down, completely, that as if ...
Natasha stopped: it was impossible to speak. He obviously made an effort to listen, and yet he could not.
“Yes, it’s burned out, they say,” he said. - This is very sorry, - and he began to look ahead, absentmindedly spreading his mustache with his fingers.
- Have you met Count Nikolai, Marie? - said Prince Andrey suddenly, apparently wishing to please them. - He wrote here that he liked you very much, - he continued simply, calmly, apparently unable to understand all that complex meaning that his words had for living people. “If you fell in love with him too, it would be very good ... for you to marry,” he added rather more quickly, as if delighted with the words that he had been looking for for a long time and found at last. Princess Marya heard his words, but they had no other meaning for her, except that they proved how terribly far away he was now from all living things.
- What to say about me! She said calmly and looked at Natasha. Natasha, feeling her gaze on her, did not look at her. Again everyone was silent.
"Andre, you want ..." Princess Marya suddenly said in a shuddering voice, "do you want to see Nikolushka?" He thought about you all the time.
Prince Andrey smiled slightly for the first time, but Princess Marya, who knew his face so well, realized with horror that it was not a smile of joy, not tenderness for her son, but a quiet, meek mockery of what Princess Marya used, in her opinion , the last resort to bring him to his senses.
- Yes, I am very glad to Nikolushka. He is healthy?
When they brought Nikolushka to Prince Andrey, who looked frightened at his father, but did not cry, because no one was crying, Prince Andrey kissed him and, obviously, did not know what to say to him.
When Nikolushka was being taken away, Princess Marya went up to her brother again, kissed him and, unable to hold on any longer, began to cry.
He looked at her intently.
- Are you talking about Nikolushka? - he said.
Princess Marya, crying, bent her head in the affirmative.
- Marie, you know Evan ... - but he suddenly fell silent.
- What are you saying?
- Nothing. Don't cry here, ”he said, looking at her with the same cold look.
When Princess Marya began to cry, he realized that she was crying that Nikolushka would be left without a father. With great effort on himself, he tried to return back to life and was transferred to their point of view.
“Yes, they must feel sorry for it! He thought. - And how simple it is!
“The birds of heaven neither sow nor reap, but your father feeds them,” he said to himself and wanted to say the same to the princess. “But no, they will understand it in their own way, they will not understand! They cannot understand this, that all these feelings that they value are all ours, all these thoughts that seem so important to us that they are not needed. We cannot understand each other. " And he fell silent.
The little son of Prince Andrey was seven years old. He could hardly read, he knew nothing. He went through a lot after that day, gaining knowledge, observation, experience; but if he had possessed then all these after acquired abilities, he could not have better, deeper understand the whole meaning of the scene that he saw between his father, Princess Marya and Natasha than he understood it now. He understood everything and, without crying, left the room, silently walked up to Natasha, who had followed him, looked shyly at her with pensive beautiful eyes; raised ruddy upper lip he trembled, he leaned his head against her and began to cry.
There is a creature on Earth about which few people know. This animal is very rare and is listed among endangered species. This is the Ili pika, a photo of which is presented in the article. It is sometimes also called the "magic rabbit" or senostavka.
The Ili pike is an animal of the genus of mammals of the family of pikas, where it is the only one and has 31 species. Nobody has seen this beautiful unusual animal for more than 20 years.
Ili pika: description
There are 31 species of pikas. There is not enough space for the largest in the palm of an adult, but the smallest of them can feel comfortable even on the palm of a small child. Outward appearance"Magic rabbit" is very similar to hamsters.
These animals closely related to hares have a body length of 18-20 cm and a weight of 75-290 g, depending on the species. The tail of the pikas is completely invisible, its length is no more than two centimeters. Their ears are round, short. The legs of the pikas are almost equal in length, except that the hind legs are slightly longer than the front ones. They perform the function of moving along tight, sometimes vertical crevices located in the rocks, and are also needed for digging holes.
The pads of the fingers are bare, sometimes covered with hairs. Summer fur has a monochromatic color: gray, brown, red, sandy. In winter, the coat is slightly lighter, gray tones prevail.
Habitat
The best habitat for pikas is in cold climates. There are species for which rocky mountainous areas where there are many crevices on the slopes. There, some Ili pikas dig holes, for other species it is an excellent refuge from predators. Large-eared and red pikas often settle in large-stony taluses, Altai ones sometimes inhabit tree roots and heaps of dead wood.
Several types of haystacks have chosen the following pikas as their place of residence: Mongolian, Daurian, black-lipped, steppe. Ili pikas are colonial creatures, they live in whole settlements, in which sometimes there are from several tens to thousands of wonderful animals.
Habitat
This cute-looking " Teddy bear»Made itself felt only in 1983, when it was discovered by one of the security specialists natural resources... There are dozens of species of pikas, the habitat of which is different corners our planet. Most of them are found in Asia, only two species are found in North America, in European countries only one species entered. In the Tien Shan mountains, in northeastern China, at an altitude of 2800-4100 meters, about a thousand of these tiny animals live.
The next mission, when the Ilya pika was recorded by the camera, ended successfully only in 2014 in the summer. This happened on the territory of the Ili-Kazakh autonomous region in China. Reports were sent about the find to various media, in which environmentalists urged the population to stand up for protection. unique representatives fauna. The reason for the decline in the population of individuals was climatic anomalies, as well as the excessive use of forest land by people for agricultural purposes.
Ili pika: a way of life
I wonder why the Ili pika has a second name, senostavka? This was facilitated by one peculiar feature inherent in these individuals - to prepare hay for the winter. The whole procurement process is very smooth and smart. First, the pikas cut the grass, then lay it out for further drying, choosing sunny places. If it's raining, the stalks of the grass hide. Prepared hay is placed in the cracks between the stones, sometimes stacked in stacks. V hibernation the animals do not fall.
How much do we know about these little animals? What do they have in common with hares? The most significant similarity can be noted: for some and others, the main food is woody, herbaceous stems, shrub branches and tree bark. Often, both the hare and the Ili pika use lichens and moss for food. For them, this diet is equally suitable.
One of characteristic features, which the Ili pika possesses, is its sonorous squeak, with which it warns other individuals of the dangers. The pika got its name from these far-off signals. Her life expectancy is high when compared with the lives of others. steppe species small animals.
The Ili Pikuha leads both in the daytime and at night. The female begins to mate at the beginning of May, and at the beginning of June she already brings the first litter. The litter grows very slowly, the reason for this is the food supply. There are females that do not mate, some give only one litter for the entire season.
Ecologists gave the name "magic rabbit" to the pika because it rarely comes into the field of human sight. This is the most all over the world on this moment is on the verge of extinction.
, hardworking pika these cute and hardworking animals live in mountainous areas (up to 6,000 meters above sea level) temperate latitudes Asia. One species - the American pika - lives in North America, one - the steppe pika - in South East Europe... There are about 15 species of pikas in the world.
Outwardly, pikas resemble a large mouse or guinea pig... They have short legs and a tail, and neat, rounded ears are nothing like a hare or rabbit, although the animals are classified as hare-like.
The whiskers are long, the color is usually monochromatic. Often the color of one animal is very different in different time of the year. The size of an adult animal varies from 10 to 25 cm in length, the weight usually does not exceed 350 g.
Pikas live in burrows, which they usually dig themselves. The length of one burrow with all exits and branches reaches 10 meters. If the layer of snow is deep enough, the pika can make a nest in the shape of a ball, neatly lined with grass.
In those habitats where there is little soil, the animals find shelter in rocky crevices or among stones. Pikas do not move quickly, in small jumps. Most species live in colonies - it is easier to protect themselves from enemies: sable, weasel, birds of prey and others who want to feast on a small animal.
Into a good sunny weather pikas love to sunbathe on rocky areas; in rainy and windy areas, they hide from the weather in natural shelters. But most often the pikas can be found at the painstaking and serious work of collecting hay.
Why the pika was nicknamed the senostavka
Many species of pikas live in the harsh highlands where summers are short and winters cold. Therefore, they have learned to prepare food for the winter. Collecting plants around their burrows, pikas make a stack of hay from them.
To prevent the stack from being blown away by the wind, smart animals press it down with stones. The American pika makes stacks about half a meter high in the center of its site. Apallas pika collects 3-4 kg of hay during the summer.
There is reliable information about the hardworking Altai pika, in which the stack height reached 2 meters, and the mass of not dried hay was 27 kg. Dry hay is stored under natural sheds in the form of stones or rocks.
Although pikas and live in colonies, they carefully guard the boundaries of their site and their reserves from the encroachments of outsiders. If stacks are inconvenient, pikas hide their reserves in crevices between rocks.
Hardworking animals constantly check the food, lay it out for drying after the rain, take it to their burrows, and protect it from the raids of fellow tribesmen. Most pikas do not hibernate, relying on hay supplies made in the warm season.
The mating season for pikas occurs two or three times a year. After monthly pregnancy the female usually gives birth to two to eight cubs.
The peak fertility of pikas is twelve babies in one litter. Cubs are born blind and helpless; in some species they are covered with hair from birth, in others they are born naked.
Species: Certhia familiaris = Common Pika
We meet with this little noticeable bird most often in autumn. On a damp and foggy October day, when few forest dwellers keep quiet, busy looking for a meager food, amid the thin and fragmentary whistle of tits and kinglets, a rather loud and drawn-out squeak involuntarily attracts attention, like "blue ... blue ..." or "ttsii ...", repeated with small pauses. Sometimes it is heard very close, but, looking closely, you do not see any bird on the nearest branches. And the squeak is heard very close. And suddenly, on the vertical trunk of an old tree, you notice a slowly moving little creature... Like a grayish-brown mouse, it has twisted out from behind the trunk and is crawling up the bark. But it is worth taking a step closer, and it becomes clear that this is a small (smaller than a sparrow) bird, strikingly suitable in color to match the bark of an old tree overgrown with brown lichens.
She has gray-brown plumage, with small light and rusty specks (males and females have the same), and a slightly reddish tail, which she seems to "carry" along the bark. For a thin, drawn-out squeak, it got its common name - pika. So she crawled to the edge of the trunk and became visible in profile. Take a closer look! The underside of the body is noticeably lighter than the top - dirty-white (throat, chest, abdomen), and a remarkable beak is clearly visible - long, slightly curved downward and thin, like tweezers. Long fingers with tenacious claws firmly hold the bird on the irregularities of the bark, and on the sheer trunk it feels as comfortable as tits on the branches. And the tail feathers (tail feathers) are slightly curved downward, with a very rigid shaft and pointed (like a woodpecker). Crawling, the pika rests on them as if on a spring.
In short jumps, the pika slowly moves up and obliquely along the trunk, squeaks and every minute pushes its beak into each crack in the bark.
A thin beak allows her to get out small spiders that have huddled there, deeply laid eggs of butterflies, beetles and other tiny live prey. She willingly eats the larvae of earwigs. Having found round holes of bark beetles (for example, “typographers”) in the bark, it manages to pull out with its beak either an adult gape beetle, or a fat larva, like tweezers. Its food assortment is very diverse, and many formidable forest pests destroy pikas during their autumn and winter migrations in the forests.
Among the prey of the pika, the testicles of insects and spiders, pupae and inactive small larvae prevail, which it exterminates in great numbers. This further enhances the forestry benefits of the pika. But it does not pursue flying and fast running insects.
These birds do not keep in flocks. Only at the end of summer and early autumn, when broods have not yet broken, you can see 3-4 pikas close to each other. Later, in winter, they separate, and each lives separately. But the pika has a different attitude to other birds: it willingly joins flocks of tits in the fall and roams with them through the forests, often visiting gardens (even city ones). Hunting places tits and pikas do not coincide, their habits are different, and life in a flock is always beneficial for its members with greater protection from enemies. Tits seek food on tree branches, rarely clinging to the bark of large trunks. The pika dominates here, and only nuthatch can compete with it. But a much thicker beak does not always allow it to get out of the narrow and deep slit the prey that the pika can easily extract.
In many places, the pika is found all year round... Even in winter, in frosts, it finds food for itself in the forest, since many small insects, their testicles and pupae overwinter in the cracks of the bark. On the entire vast area of its habitat, the pika settled, despite its delicate constitution and feeding exclusively on insects. Only in some years in the fall there is something like a flight. This bird is distributed throughout Europe, in northern Asia and North America. In Russia, it is found in forests throughout the European part - from Arkhangelsk to the Crimea and the Caucasus, inclusive. It is absent only in steppe and treeless places. In Asia, the pika is widespread in the forest belt of Siberia, to the east to the Sea of Okhotsk and Sakhalin, and to the south to Mongolia, Tien Shan, Kazakhstan and northern Iran. In different areas of this large area of distribution, geographic variability in color is noted, and several subspecies are distinguished. In general, Siberian individuals are lighter than European ones, and the lightest are concentrated in Central Siberia... Further to the east (for example, in the Ussuri region), the color of the upper side becomes darker again. Western European pikas are very dark. The sizes are also variable, for example, the length of the wing, the length of the beak and claws. The average length of pikas is about 13 centimeters.
At the end of winter, with the first thaws, the pika begins to behave more lively. She crawls faster along the trunks, repeats her squeak more often and louder, and sometimes even fights with her own kind when she meets. And a little later, on the eve of spring, her hasty ringing song, consisting of high tones with several extended initial high sounds, then turning into a frequent, abruptly breaking trill, is already spreading through the forest. She is very noticeable at this time, since there are no vociferous summer singers yet, and tits and oatmeal, also beginning to sing, cannot drown out the brisk trill of the pika.
But you can listen to it for a short time. The pike begins to nest very early, and with the beginning of incubation, the male becomes silent. First clutches in middle lane come across already at the end of April. Pika nests in mixed and deciduous old forests (sometimes in gardens), arranging its nest in very characteristic places - most often behind the peeling bark of some old, decayed tree (aspen, linden, in the south - hornbeam and beech) or in a dilapidated hollow.
The testicles are very small (only 15-16 millimeters long), and there are up to 9-10 of them in the nest. They have a very clean (white or slightly fawn) main background, and at the blunt end there is a cap, or corolla, of densely spaced brown and reddish specks. The sharp end has almost no spots. The female incubates very tightly. I had to approach the incubating bird at a distance of no more than a meter (bending over the nest), and it did not fly off.
Chicks hatch after twelve to thirteen days. If the clutch is large (8-9 eggs), then there are often one or two undeveloped eggs in it, and among the chicks, the weakest usually dies and is trampled into the base of the nest by others. Parents carry food to the nest almost continuously. Variegated, short-tailed chicks, not yet knowing how to fly, crawl along the tree where the nest was, and cling tenaciously to the bark, squeaking when their parents approach. In some good years, even in the middle lane, pikas are hatched twice; sometimes even in July one can observe well-flying young, still receiving food from their parents. Through binoculars, you can see that their beak is shorter and straighter than that of the old ones ..
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