NPS
Though pikas are not listed as an endangered species, a warming climate may bring other animals, along with diseases, into their alpine territory.
Climate change is raising temperatures, changing weather patterns and causing droughts. It also impacts wildlife like the American pika by threatening its high mountain habitat in Colorado and other parts of the West, but a group of scientists and outdoor enthusiasts are trying to help.
On a rainy morning in late June, a group of about 30 people gathered in a parking lot off Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park.
“You are joining a long tradition of pika patrollers, scouring the Rocky Mountains of Colorado for pika and helping us to learn about them and ensure that we are aware of the trajectory of them in Colorado,” said Alex Wells, citizen science project specialist at the Denver Zoo and a co-director of Colorado Pika Project.