Pika are so cute. They live above 12k'/3650m in the mountains here and you can hear the colonies chirp when you pass by. Their fur is so well-insulating that climate change raising local temperatures slightly will wipe out the entire population.
You're not even supposed to hold one in your hands, that's how sensitive to temperature they are. I never saw one, but I have heard several on hikes.
They're hard to watch. It takes a good 20 minutes of sitting there in silence before their curiosity outweighs their anxiety and they start popping up. It's such a big contrast to our yellow-bellied marmot population that has more or less the same ecological niche. It's a shame we can't do anything to protect their habitat since it's above the treeline and everything up there takes way longer to grow.
