Pikasu , or senostavka ( lat. Ochotona ), is a genus of mammals from the family of the pesachidae order of the rabbit , the only modern genus of the family in which 31 species are distinguished [1] [2] . The systematics of pikas is extremely unstable, and its development is still far from complete.
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 Observational pose of the northern pika ( Ochotona hyperborea ) in the Momsky nature park , Yakutia | ||||||||||||||
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| Ochotona Link , 1795 |
Pisahuks got their name because of the various sound signals with which they echo or notify each other about the danger. Most pikas live in Asia , two species in North America, one species enters Europe.
Pikas have short ears, and the length of the hind and front legs is almost the same. All pikes are small animals that look like hamsters , but they belong to the order of the Hare , and not to rodents like hamsters. Due to the ability of most species to store hay for the winter, the pika is also called senostavki.
Content
Description
Pisahuks are small, outwardly resembling hamsters animals, however, in reality they are close relatives of hares with short paws, 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.
The body is about 18-20 cm long. The tail is less than 2 cm long, and is invisible from the outside. Vibrissa ("mustache") are very long, in some species they significantly exceed the length of the head. Finger pillows are bare, or covered with hair brushes. The fur is almost plain: in the summer it is brown, sandy or red; in winter more often gray. The weight of an adult is from 75 to 290 grams , depending on the species.
Dental formula [3] : .
Most often, pikas feed on herbs, shrubs, mosses and lichens.
Pisajkas are active during the day and at dusk. If you exercise caution, they can be seen sitting on the stones, stumps or trunks of lying trees. When examining the terrain, they rise, putting their forelegs on some object, but never become a "column", as rabbits, some rodents and predators do. They are very sensitive to bad weather and sharply reduce activity before prolonged rains, stopping forage preparation a day or two before the weather. They do not hibernate, so in the winter they feed on harvested hay. The insects collect fresh grass and pile it until it dries. Sometimes pikas cover pebbles on the drying grass so that it is not blown away by the wind. As soon as the grass dries, they transfer it to a hole for storage. However, alpine pika in some areas does not dry plants, but removes them fresh. Often, pikas steal hay from each other. Daurian pika often erects βstacksβ on the surface of the earth. Mountain views stockpile under overhanging stone slabs or in the cracks between the stones.
Most Eurasian pikas usually live in family groups and share responsibilities for collecting food and monitoring possible dangers. Some species (for example, the North American O. princeps and O. collaris ) are territorial and lead a solitary lifestyle outside the mating season.
In the northern parts of the range breed once a year. Southern populations produce 2β3 broods per year, 2β6 cubs each. Pregnancy lasts 25-30 days. Unlike hares, they are monogamous.
The skin of a pika is thin, the skin is fragile and cannot be used as fur. They are not of economic interest.
Distribution
Pikasu isolated from other lagomorphs in the Oligocene . In a fossil state, they are known in North Africa ( Miocene ), in South-Western Europe: Hungary, Moldova, the Odessa Black Sea region and other regions of southern Ukraine ( Miocene - Pliocene ). They lived in Western Europe. Pikas entered North America from Siberia by land, which was on the site of the modern Bering Strait .
Currently, most pikas live in Asia (in the steppes of the Volga, Southern Urals, Northern Kazakhstan, in the mountains of Central and Central Asia, China, in the north of Iran, Afghanistan, India, Burma, as well as in the mountainous regions of Siberia and the Far East, in the north Korea and Hokkaido), two species - in North America, one species lives on the eastern outskirts of Europe.
Many species of pikas are common in the open spaces of mountain plains. Approximately half of the species gravitate toward rocky biotopes : scree of stones, rock outcrops, mountain outcrops. Few species live in the taiga.
In the fauna of Russia, 7 species of pikas are represented. Small (steppe) pikha populates Orenburg and Kazakhstan steppes, Daurian - steppes of Tuva and Southern Transbaikalia. Altai and northern pikas live in mountains and forests throughout Siberia , where there are rocky placers, the Mongolian one is found not only in Mongolia , but also in the gravelly mountain steppes of southern Tyva. The Khentei pika lives on the territory of Russia on only one small ridge in the Trans-Baikal Territory ( Erman ridge ), while the Manchurian one lives on rocky placers between the Shilka and Argun rivers [4] .
Habitat
Pisahuks prefer to live in places with a cold climate. Some species live on rocky mountain slopes in rocky scree, where there are numerous crevices to hide from predators, while others dig holes. Several species of pikas live in the steppe. Their burrows can sometimes be very complex and have several chambers for various purposes - nesting, for storing stocks, etc. The mountain species (larger-eared, red) that are most adapted to live in rocky biotopes that settle on large-scale screes do not dig holes at all and arrange nests are only in the voids between the stones and in the cracks of crumbling rocks. Altai pikas can also settle outside scree, under the roots of trees, in piles of fallen trees, there they expand and clear the passages of their shelters. Digging holes is most characteristic of the steppe inhabitants - the black-lipped, Daurian, Mongolian and steppe pikas.
All species are colonial to varying degrees. Tens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of animals can live in settlements. Settlements are separated from each other by several hundred meters, sometimes by kilometers. In case of danger, an audible alarm appears - a loud whistle or twitter (depending on the degree of danger).
Classification
- The genus Pischekha ( Ochotona ) [1] [5]
- Subgenus Northern Pikah ( Pika )
- Altai pika ( Ochotona alpina ), or alpine pika
- Alashan Pika ( Ochotona argentata ) [6]
- Collar Pika ( Ochotona collaris ), or Alaskan Pika
- Khentei Pika ( Ochotona hoffmanni ) [7]
- Northern Pika ( Ochotona hyperborea )
- Manchurian pika ( Ochotona mantchurica ) [2] [8]
- Mongolian pika ( Ochotona pallasi ), or Pallas pika
- American Pika ( Ochotona princeps ), or peak
- Turukhansk pika ( Ochotona turuchanensis ) [9]
- Subgrowth Pisces of the bushy steppes ( Ochotona )
- Gansu pika ( Ochotona cansus ) [10]
- Black-eyed Pika ( Ochotona curzoniae )
- Daurian Pika ( Ochotona dauurica )
- Qinling Pika ( Ochotona huangensis ) [11]
- Nubra Pika ( Ochotona nubrica ) [12]
- Steppe pika ( Ochotona pusilla ), or small pika
- Reddish Pika ( Ochotona rufescens )
- Tibetan pika ( Ochotona thibetana )
- Thomas Pies ( Ochotona thomasi )
- Subgenus Mountain Pika ( Conothoa )
- Chinese Pika ( Ochotona erythrotis )
- Forrest Pies ( Ochotona forresti ) [10]
- Yunnan pika ( Ochotona gaoligongensis ) [10]
- Kama pika ( Ochotona gloveri )
- Himalayan Pika ( Ochotona himalayana ) [10]
- Ili Pika ( Ochotona iliensis ) [13]
- Kozlov's Pies ( Ochotona koslowi )
- Ladakh Pika ( Ochotona ladacensis )
- Big-eared Pika ( Ochotona macrotis )
- Mulia pika ( Ochotona muliensis ) [10]
- Ochotona nigritia
- Indian pika ( Ochotona roylei ), or Royley pika
- Red Pika ( Ochotona rutila )
- Subgenus Northern Pikah ( Pika )
- Ochotona spanglei β - 10.3-4.9 million years ago, USA [14]
- Ochotona valerotae β - 1.81β0.011 million years ago, France [15]
- Ochotona whartoni β - 1.81β0.011 million years ago, Alaska [16]
Notes
- β 1 2 Ochotona Archived on October 7, 2012. // Wilson DE & Reeder DM (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 [1]
- β 1 2 Grigorieva T.V., Formozov N.A., Surin V.L., 2007 . Molecular taxonomy of the pika sub - genus Pika (Ochotona, Lagomorpha) and a new species of pika, Ochotona mantchurica , in the fauna of Russia // Theriofauna of Russia and adjacent territories. (VIII Congress of the Theriological Society). Materials Intern. Meeting. M .: Partnership of scientific publications of KMK. S. 104.
- β Gromov I.M., Erbaeva M.A. Mammal fauna of Russia and adjacent territories
- β Pischa - a relative of the long-eared
- β Sokolov V.E. Mammals Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / edited by Acad. V. E. Sokolova. - M .: Rus. lang., 1984. - S. 204. - 10,000 copies.
- β Formozov N.A., Baklushinskaya I. Yu., Ma Yun Taxonomic status of Alashan pika, Ochotona argentata (Alashan Range, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Okrug, China) // Zoological Journal. - 2004 .1. Volume 83, No. 8. - S. 995-1007. - ISSN 0044-5134
- β Formozov N.A., Baklushinskaya I. Yu. On the species status of the Khentei pika ( Ochotona hoffmanni Formozov et al., 1996) and its incorporation into the fauna of Russia // Bull. Mosk. islands of nature testers. Sep. Biol. - 1999 . - T. 104 - Issue. 5. - S. 68-72.
- β Formozov N.A., Baklushinskaya I. Yu. The Manchurian pika ( Ochotona mantchurica scorodumovi ) from the Shilka and Arguni interfluve: a karyotype and taxonomy issues of pisces of the Amur Region and adjacent territories // Zoological Journal, Volume 90, No. 4, April 2011 , C. 490-497.
- β Lisovsky A.A. 2004 . Turukhanskaya Pishuha ( Ochotona turuchanensis ) / In the book. Fauna of vertebrate animals of the Putorana Plateau. Ed. A.A. Romanov. Moscow. 475 p.
- β 1 2 3 4 5 Full illustrated encyclopedia. "Mammals" Prince. 2 = The New Encyclopedia of Mammals / Ed. D. MacDonald . - M .: Omega, 2007 .-- S. 440. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-465-01346-8 .
- β Vakurin A.A., Korablev V.P. Kariotype of the Qinlin pika Ochotona huangensis Mtschie, 1908 (lagomorpha, Ochotonidae) // Theriofauna of Russia and adjacent territories. M. 2011.P. 83
- β Formozov N.A., Baklushinskaya I. Yu., Surin V.L. Phylogeny of pikes (Ochotona, Lagomorpha) according to the karyosystematics and molecular structure of the BCR and PBGD gene sections // Theriofauna of Russia and adjacent territories (VII Congress of Theriological Society). 2003 , S. 370.
- β Formozov N. A. Is there a rare Ilya pika ( Ochotona iliensis ) in the Dzungarian Alatau? // Selevinia. - 1996/1997 . - S. 235-238.
- β The Paleobiology Database: Ochotona spanglei
- β The Paleobiology Database: Ochotona valerotae
- β The Paleobiology Database: Ochotona whartoni