![]() Global warming threatens pikas by exposing them to heat stress, lowering food availability in the mountain meadows where they forage, reducing the amount of time when they can gather food, and reducing the insulating snowpack during winter. ![]() Adapted to cold alpine conditions, pikas are intolerant of high temperatures and can die from overheating when exposed to temperatures as low as 78 degrees Fahrenheit for just a few hours. ![]() The American pika ( Ochotona princeps) lives in boulder fields near mountain peaks in the western United States. The ruling will send the state pika petition back to the Commission for reconsideration. In related news involving the pika, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter Busch ruled from the bench on Apthat the California Fish and Game Commission violated state law when it rejected last spring a petition authored by the Center for Biological Diversity to list pika as threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act. "The pika’s shrinking habitat is a harbinger of what may happen to many species if we don’t address global warming now." "We are pleased that the Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to take the pika’s plight seriously," said Greg Loarie, an attorney with Earthjustice, which is representing the Center in the case. The Service is now required to decide whether the pika will be designated as an endangered species by February 1, 2010. The decision, which will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, is available here.Īs a result of today’s decision, the pika will become the first mammal considered for protection under the Act due to global warming in the continental United States outside of Alaska. The Service’s decision comes under court order 16 months after the legal deadline. The decision comes in response to a scientific petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity in October 2007 seeking protection for the species, followed by an August 2008 lawsuit against the Service for failing to respond to the petition. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced that it is launching a full status review to determine whether the American pika, a small, alpine-dwelling relative of the rabbit that is imperiled by global warming, warrants the protections of the Endangered Species Act.
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