![]() ![]() ![]() Grazing pressure – Overgrazing from animals like sheep and goats might have disrupted the Ili pika’s burrows or food sources.Pollution – Pikas live in high altitudes and are highly sensitive to environment changes. One of the major causes thought to be hurting Ili pika population is pollution, resulting in climate change and global warming.Threatsīecause so little is known about the Ili pika, scientists can only speculate about what is causing the population decline based on observations. He quickly photographed the animal and successfully captured the first known images of the pika. More than 20 years later, Li and a group volunteers returned to the mountain to look for the pika and while setting up camera traps, saw an Ili pika appear from a gap in the rocks. Neither he nor the people he was traveling with recognized the species, so he caught it and had it confirmed that it was indeed a new species of pika. While exploring, he saw the small animal between some cracks in the rocks. Li Weidong, a scientist at the Xinjiang Institute for Ecology and Geography, initially discover the Ili pika in 1983 when he went on a trip to the Xinjiang Province to study the area. Unfortunately, there are little to no conservation efforts for the Ili pika. The exact cause for their population decline is relatively unknown, but scientists attribute it to climate change and low population densities. ![]() The Ili pika is an endangered species native to the Tian Shan mountain range in northwestern China. One endangered species of pika, the Ili pika, has rarely been seen by humans and wasn’t even photographed until 2014 (more than 20 years since it was discovered). Unlike Pikachu, however, pikas are not yellow or emit lightning bolts. In fact, Pikachu, the famous mascot of the Pokemon franchise, is loosely based of the real life mammal called the pika. The word “pika” might remind most people of the sound a certain yellow electric mouse makes. We wanted to celebrate this endangered small mammal with our modern Pika Backpack. Never heard of the pika? It’s probably because this cute but rare Ili pika has only been spotted in the wild a few times (both times by the same person!). A photo available in in the article linked down below. Note: Because of copyright, the photos used in the post are of the related Collared Pika and not of the Ili Pika that is discussed. ![]()
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