Talk:Pika

man running

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2020 and 31 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Andygagliardi.

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Classification

Prolagus represents its own family Prolagidae (MSW 3rd ed.). There are probably a few more Ochotona species, but I don't go in further detail now. Just have a look in my lists. Ucucha See Mammal Taxonomy 16:10, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Rock rabbit, and Rabbit vs. Hyrax

In some areas and in some languages, there's a big confusion between Rabbits and Hyraxes, with their name mistakenly being used interchangably. Wikipedia falls into this confusion as well: rock rabbit currently redirects to Pika, which explains that "rock rabbit" and "coney" are alternative names for this animal. But, Cape Hyrax also says that "rock rabbit" is also a name for that animal, and "coney" actually refers to it, not to rabbits. I'm not sure what should be done about this mess, but perhaps a good start will be to make at least rock rabbit a disambiguation page pointing to both? And while we're at it, the disambiguation page Coney doesn't point to either Pika or Cape Hyrax, but rather to Rabbit - and that article does not even mention the word Coney in it.... Nyh 07:02, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't know about Hyraxes, but I did some research earlier this evening, and it sounds like the Degu may be closely related to the pika. DNA test suggest that both belong to the order of Lagomorph, along with rabbits. -M.Neko

"Coney" is a common name of the European Rabbit. I have heard that the first use of the name for hyraxes was in the King James Bible (for lack of a better word, I imagine). It is also applied to pikas. Using the common name of a familiar animal for unfamiliar ones of somewhat similar appearance is frequent; another that comes to mind is "ringtail cat" for the procyonid Bassariscus.

As far as Degus being lagomorphs, their anatomy clearly places them with the other caviomorph rodents, and is very different from that of lagomorphs, so that if there is a relationship, it is between all caviomorphs (including guinea pigs, chinchillas, and capybaras) and all lagomorphs, and the DNA evidence doesn't support that. DNA evidence cannot be evaluated out-of-context, and mistakes can be made. Even the Wikipedia article Octodontidae says that "...this has not been supported by further analyses."

I made Rock rabbit a disambiguation page, and added hyrax to the Coney disambiguation page.--Curtis Clark 15:41, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Degus are not lagomorphs! And pikas aren't rabbits, but they're lagomorphs. From what I know, pikas are also known as conies. Dora Nichov 06:43, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

18-01-11 Hi. I have deleted the sentence "Pikas are also called rock rabbits or conys", because of a mistake within it. The terms "rock rabbits" and "conys" are attributed to no other then the Hyrax. As you can see in the link here - http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=719584&imageID=822193#_seemore (from the Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection / Animals C)- the "rock rabbit" is the Hyrax, or the Hyrax habessinicus, to be more specific. Written on border is the term "Cony", also referring to the animal in the Drawing. I also want to suggest that one of wikipedia editors will use this information and picture to widen the Hyrax and Cony pages accordingly.

- yours truly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.114.5.10 (talk) 15:35, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

One example of a hyrax labeled "cony" doesn't prove that pikas aren't also called conies. See also my comment at Talk:Coney#coney is Hyrax - not Pica. The Oxford and Webster dictionaries both list either pika, or more particularly the American pika, as an alternate meaning for cony/coney, so it would take a very good source to refute that and show that the term "coney" has never commonly been used for pikas.

OED specifically mentions that L. princeps, the North American species, is "locally known as" coney, so I would suspect that calling pikas "coneys" is an exclusively US-English usage.

By the way, the real meaning of cony is "rabbit" (from Latin cuniculus meaning rabbit), so it's application to both pikas and hyraces is somewhat of a misnomer.

Pelagic (talk) 10:46, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

Pronunciation

Everyone I know in the US pronounces it "paikǝ" (if I have my IPA right).--Curtis Clark 15:42, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, like pie-ka. Dora Nichov 06:43, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Pikachu

Looks like this is where they got the idea for a pikachu.

That's just what I was thinking--Hibernian 23:57, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

That's just what I was thinking as well. I'm trying very hard not to vandalize this page and change the picture to Pikachu (don't worry, I'm not going to, but it's tempting). --bī-RŌ 01:20, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Pikachu isn't a pika. - UtherSRG (talk) 10:58, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

He's a "mouse" type. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.156.123.94 (talk • contribs) .

But bear in mind that the Japanese use the term mouse (nezumi.. literally "rat") to refer to thigns as wide ranging as ermines & marmosets. Apart from the ears & tail a Pikachu is a dead ringer for a Pika. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Winterdenni (talk • contribs)

Apart from the ears and tail, many mammals look like pikas.--Curtis Clark 05:02, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

I disagree too. Pikas look nothing like Pikachu. Come on, pikas have round ears and a fat body, also no tail either. Not to mention they can't thundershock other people... *winks* Dora Nichov 06:45, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Yeah... Hamsters look a lot like pikas too. Dora Nichov 13:38, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Besides, Pikachu's name comes from the Japanese words pika pika meaning "to flash" (like electricity), and chū, the word used for a rodent's squeak. -SaturnYoshi ^{THE VOICES} 16:41, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

I think that the creators of Pikachu planned for it to fit both flash and this animal. The original Pikachu artwork is far too similar to this particular animal for it to be a coincidence. The original Pikachu was even more similar than the current one. -- THL^CCD 01:17, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

From personal observation, Japanese puns usually have many layers. It wouldn't surprise me that the creators used both interpreations to make the choice for this name--ZayZayEM 05:45, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Maybe I'll believe you if you have a picture of it... Dora Nichov 09:01, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

All the other Pokemon do not actually look -exactly- like the creatures the represent, and the Japanese do not only use their own language to form words. Characters are often modified to fit the artist's interpritation of the idea. It's far to similar to a Pika to say its anything else. Where is "mouse" in japanese in his name? Hares and rabbits don't exactly squeek, but they are larger, as is Pikachu, and last I check Pikachu actually says his name. imongi 19:48, January 22, 2007

A pika is neither hare nor rabbit. They're just from the same order. Dora Nichov 08:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes they are from the same order. Lagomorpha includes two families, the pikas and rabbits. --Belg4mit 22:31, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Right. That's what I said. Dora Nichov 10:50, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

ピカピカ (pika pika) is the sound electricity makes when sparking in Japan. It is similar to the sound "zap zap" that is used in many English speaking countries. "Chu" is the sound a mouse makes. Together they are a sparking sound and a mouse's sound or "Electric Mouse." The fact that ピカ is romanized as "pika" and there is an animal called a pika is just cooincidence. - 67.166.132.47 (talk) 17:55, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Pikachu is a beastachu —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.65.132.225 (talk) 21:01, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

The original drawings for pikachu had him with said fat body that pikas have. (Yah I know this is only a toy, not a drawing. Pffpt. Open up an old issue of Nintendo Power.. he looks like a pika >.>) I don't think it's a cooincidence. But it's kind of amusing to see. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3390/3418100617_643266b277.jpg —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.131.210.20 (talk) 13:16, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

I think its sort of doubles as a joke for more western audiences. I know the 'Pika' part is referring to the noise of electricity sparking and 'chu' is the noise that a mouse makes, however i think the 'Pika' part unintentionally doubled as a pun for western audiences, sort of what they did for Wario, as the w is for 'warui' which is bad in japan, and it also doubles as a joke for western audiences by making it look like an upside down 'm'. FiveGreenBottles (talk) 15:29, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Pikachu is also based on the Pika. Pokémon was designed from outset for Western export, not just Japan. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pikavoom (talk • contribs) 09:00, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

Submission for External Link

I am suggesting to add this as a link -

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ochotonidae.html

It is the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web page for the "Family Ochotonidae:pikas"
As far as I can see, they don't sell stuff... Gooblyglob (talk) 23:56, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Citation

The Donald Grayson article is "Mammalian responses to Middle Holocene climatic change in the Great Basin of the western United States" (2000), Journal of Biogeography 27(1), p181-192. He says no such thing as "human activity and global climate change appeared to be pushing the American pika population to ever-higher elevations and thus possibly toward extinction." His conclusion states, in part, "As a result, we cannot as yet draw secure inferences concerning small mammal responses to global warming conditions in the Great Basin from the Homestead Cave faunal assemblages. Nonetheless, those assemblages do provide our first detailed understanding of mammalian reponses to Middle Holocene warmth and aridity in this region." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.64.132.97 (talk) 20:01, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

• The Wiley Interscience conclusion states: "Prehistoric alterations in the distribution of pika population in the Great Basin were driven by climate change and attendant impacts on vegetation. Today, Great Basin pikas contend with both climate change and anthropogenic impacts and thus may be on the brink of extinction.", which is pretty much exactly what this article says. Note that is says nothing about anthropogenic climate change, nor the cause of the climate change in question. I removed the reference request template and added the reference. The dates do not correspond, so I removed "january 2006". --139.168.209.67 (talk) 05:25, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Related to chinchilla?

Is the pika related to the chinchilla? Not only do they look similar, what else is striking is that they inhabit cooler mountainous climates; and in fact both can suffer from heat stroke over 80 degrees. (As a side note, I breed standard grey chinchillas for the pet store trade.) Discpad (talk) 16:46, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

The Chinchilla is a rodent. Pikas are lagomorphs. Pikas are as closely related to the Chinchilla as they are to any rat or mouse. Which is to say, not very. - UtherSRG (talk) 17:35, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

That's a harsh way to respond to a question plenty of people have regarding pika. Chinchillas have more in common with pika than, say, the common brown rat. Rats are omnivores, chinchillas are not, for one. Chinchillas primarily eat grass, another trait in common with pika. And because of the pika's more rodent-like ear shape and body size, it is often compared to chinchillas, which are more well-known to the average person than pika. Scientific classification isn't everything, and is constantly being changed and updated. You've been lawyered, son.--Haseo ATC (talk) 16:58, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

The original question was not "are they similar?", but "are they related?". So no, they are not phylogenetically related, but they may have convergently evolved to fill a similar niche.

I trust there are good reasons for classifying pikas as Lagomorphs that will withstand the usual churn of scientific reclassification. It's not stated in this article, but at Lagomorpha it says "Lagomorphs differ from rodents in that they have four incisors in the upper jaw (not two, as in the Rodentia)".

If many readers are coming to this article wanting to know how pikas differ from chinchillas, then maybe we should add something to that effect. Apart from the teeth, and the fact that they eat their own poop, is there anything else that places them firmly with the Lagomorphs and not Rodents?

Pelagic (talk) 11:58, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

Lifespan and legality as pets?

Does anybody know how long Pikas live and in what countries (if any) they would be illegal to own as pets? 86.14.83.203 (talk) 11:23, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Chinchilla confusion

I find it confusing that the first sentence says "...chinchilla-like animal" since they are not related. Could this be changed to something else? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.253.91.16 (talk) 00:31, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Spanish?

Why is the intro paragraph in Spanish? I can read some of it, but I'm not fluent in Spanish (my rabbit-related vocabulary is sorely lacking). English translation requested.--Haseo ATC (talk) 16:42, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Pika In Nepal

pika are also found in Nepal around tso-rolpa lake which is 4500m above sea level, which might be the first siting in Nepal which i personally conformed of seeing it, after which i searched in google for such animals and never found any materials in such regards. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Musabish (talk • contribs) 12:46, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

Yes, pikas may well be found in Nepal. However, the article doesn't say that they aren't, so I don't see a problem. If you have a published reference for the sighting, though, feel free to add it to the article on the Himalayan pika, where it would belong. Anaxial (talk) 20:13, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Meaning

What does ocho- and -tona mean, for Ochotona? 113.190.144.139 (talk) 15:54, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

I believe it means 'Sharp Tone' in Greek, which makes perfect sense when you hear one (at least the species in the NW U.S.). The main page part about the derivation of the scientific name may be incorrect ("the scientific name Ochotona is from the Mongolian word ogdoi which means pika"). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.207.127.50 (talk) 16:54, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

Range map image

Well, I realized that the range map image appears twice in this article. Should we delete one of the two instances, or should we create a new range map, strictly for extant species? ElectricBurst^{(Electron firings)}_(Zaps) 21:08, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

Culture

Are pikas featured in any legends or folktales? If yes, include a section on it. Label it "culture". --The only warrah left (talk) 19:09, 7 June 2015 (UTC)

Range map

The range map shows O. pusilla (Steppe Pika) as being native to Britain, specifically England, as well as parts of Western Europe, specifically Spain, France, Portugal and Denmark. The U.K. doesn't have any landscape, nor terrain, which would fit the definition of a 'steppe', a terrain type associated with Russia, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia (Mongolia for example). As I don't believe pikas are all that good at swimming, they'd have to have arrived here whilst Britain was still attached to mainland Europe, which, as the climate and environment isn't suitable, obviously they didn't.

Could the map please be amended…? I'd do it myself if I had the software, but I've only got my iPad. There are NO extant pika species native to the UK. Margo (talk) 08:49, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

Note that the map shows sites at which fossil pikas (both extant and extinct) have been discovered, not where they live now. According to the source for the map, the British O. pusilla fossil was uncovered in Wales in middle Pleistocene deposits, and would therefore be dated back to a time when Britain was, indeed, still attached to mainland Europe, and would have had a steppe climate. I think we'd need good grounds to suppose that the source is wrong or outdated before amending the map. Although one could well argue that a map of the current distribution of pika species would be more useful for the taxobox. Anaxial (talk) 09:40, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

Discrepancy in diet?

The article states that some members will store dead birds for food, however the paragraph afterwards states them to be herbivores. Epicrangerpig (talk) 19:23, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Semi Protected Edit Request

I want to add more researched information about the Pika Mouse

SecondStevoYT (talk) 10:27, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

Please add the information you want to add under this message then resubmit. Thanks! Bobherry Talk Edits 13:39, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

Asocial pikas?

"North American pikas (O. princeps and O. collaris) are asocial, leading solitary lives outside the breeding season." In reality, these species are very sociable and communicative, they have alarm calls etc Hunu (talk) 16:00, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Alternate Pronunciation

The Canadian pronunciation of this animal's name is "piːkə" ("PEE-kuh"). I believe at least some British people use this pronunciation as well, since David Suchet pronounced it this way in the documentary series Canada: A Year In The Wild. Vigilante Girl (talk) 09:58, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

References from the database should merge with the other references

In my opinion, the references from the database should merge with the other references as in my opinion it looks strange having 2 reference tabs within the article. Xboxsponge15 (talk) 20:15, 22 January 2023 (UTC)

• Additional references of the Paleobiology Database contain such much less important references, but required somehow in the copyright license of that database (don't remember exactly). Maybe they are required only in Wikimedia, but could be removed from the article. But I don't know at all. This is only such supplement. I wouldn't mix them with basic references, because it would generate chaos. Wikimarkup allows such references. Darekk2 (talk) 06:32, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Conservation biology

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 January 2023 and 21 April 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Krhagan.

— Assignment last updated by Lrokos (talk) 14:04, 23 March 2023 (UTC)