Lucas Moyer-Horner crams his arm under a truck-sized boulder and pulls out a handful of peppercorn-like pellets. The dark brown scat belongs to a small animal that looks like a fur-covered Russet potato. American pikas inhabit high alpine talus slopes â?? rugged, steep places most people fear to tread, but Moyer-Horner scampers over like he’s in a playground. “Pika get me up high,” he says. “Grizzlies or elk wouldn’t.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison zoologist has spent his summer hiking more than 500 miles of Glacier National Park to search for pika. He climbed peaks to spot their likely talus habitats and then surveyed the rubble of rock for signs of the rabbit-cousin â?? all to gain a baseline on the park’s population. Since heat intolerant pikas have been disappearing from the West, Glacier Park wants a starting point to chronicle the future of the endearing creature.