Hoard: Make Hay!
Many animals forage for food under
the snow all winter, but one has a neat trick that can help to insure a successful
year. Pikas don't just eat plants all summer- they pick even more and pile
them up to dry. By the end of the summer, successful pikas will have made
enough hay to last them all winter.
Pikas like to stay in areas of
loose rock called talus. Talus offers lots of protected routes to escape predators,
and large grazing mammals like elk don't like talus, so they can't get close
enough to steal the pikas' drying hay.
Once winter begins, pikas can
stay comfortable out of the bad weather in their snow-buried talus passageways,
dining on the hay that they worked so hard to make the summer before. When
you visit the tundra, listen for the sharp, high-pitched squeak of pikas in
rocky talus areas.
