Handful of Rodents.

I thought this was a great photo. There was no information with the photo so i don't know what species they are, maybe some sort of Chipmunk. The title of the photo is "Handful of Rodents" And it's by- Della Stock and it was on Deviantart.com

New Feature- what am i doing.

I added a silly little widget to 3 of my blogs. It's Basically it just tells you what i am doing right now. You can see it lower down the the page- Scroll down and look to the right. When i want you to know what i am doing I'll updated it. LoL, it's kinda silly but fun.

Cute Blog.

If you like to look at other blogs that are animal or rodent related like myself, here is a cute litle blog. It has other animals on it but it also has Rodents. I thought I'd share it with you.

http://weelittlebeasties.blogspot.com/

Species of the day- Pika

Update: The Pika is our species of the day. I was doing Species of the day over at wonderful world of rats but i thought rodent species of the day would be better of here, so you will find that feature on WWRodents now.
Here is some info on the Pika: The name pika (archaically spelled pica) is used for any member of the Ochotonidae, a family within the order of lagomorphs, which also includes the Leporidae (rabbits and hares). One genus, Ochotona, is recognised within the family, and it includes 30 species. Pikas are also called rock rabbits or coneys. It is also known as the "whistling hare" due to its high-pitched alarm call when diving into its burrow. The pika may look like a hamster, but is actually a cousin of the rabbit. The name "pika" appears to be derived from the Tungus "piika", or perhaps from the Russian "pikat", to squeak. In the United States the pronunciation of the name is usually altered from /pika/ to /'paɪ·ka/, probably due to the spelling^{[citation needed]}. Habitat

Pikas are native to cold climates, mostly in Asia, North America and parts of eastern Europe. Most species live on rocky mountain sides, where there are numerous crevices to shelter in, although some also construct crude burrows. A few burrowing species are instead native to open steppe land. In the mountains of Eurasia, pikas often share their burrows with snowfinches, which build their nests there^[3].

In a January 2006 article in the Journal of Biogeography, archeologist Donald Grayson warned that human activity and global climate change appeared to be pushing the American pika population to ever-higher elevations and thus possibly toward extinction. Grayson studied pika habitation over the past 40,000 years in the region between the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) and Rocky Mountains. An earlier Journal of Mammalogy article reached a similar conclusion.

Characteristics

Pikas are small hamster-like animals, with short limbs, rounded ears, and short tails. They are about 18-20 cm in body length, with a tail less than 2 cm long, and weigh between 75 and 290 grams, depending on species. Like rabbits, after eating they initially produce soft green feces, which they eat again to extract further nutrition, before producing the final, solid, fecal pellets.

These animals are herbivores, and feed on a wide variety of plant matter. Because of their native habitat, they primarily eat grasses, sedges, shrub twigs, moss, and lichen.

Rock-dwelling pikas have small litters of less than five young, while the burrowing species tend to give birth to more young, and to breed more frequently, possibly due to a greater availability of resources in their native habitats. The young are born after a gestation period of between 25 and 30 days^[3].

Activity

Pikas are diurnal or crepuscular, with higher altitude species generally being more active during the daytime. They show their peak activity before the winter season. Pikas do not hibernate, so they rely on collected hay for warm bedding and food. Pikas gather fresh grasses and lay them in stacks to dry. Once the grasses dry out, the pikas take this hay back to the burrows for storage. It is not uncommon for pikas to steal hay from others; the resulting disputes are usually exploited by neighboring predators like ferrets and large birds.

Eurasian pikas commonly live in family groups and share duties of gathering food and keeping watch. At least some species are territorial. North American pikas (O. princeps and O. collaris) are asocial, leading solitary lives outside the breeding season.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Lagomorpha
Family:	Ochotonidae Thomas, 1897
Genus:	Ochotona Link, 1795

On a personal note.. Pika's are one of my favorite rodents. They are just too cute for words!