*Bad sign* them Pikas is headed for the hills!!!

[underpants]

This undated photo released by the U.S. Geological Survey, shows a mountain-dwelling American pika. The American pika, a short-legged, softball-sized fur ball that often huddles in high mountain slopes, isn't built for long-distance travel. So as the West's climate warms, the tiny pika has little choice but to scurry a little farther up slope to beat the heat.
(AP Photo/US Geological Survey, File)

As West warms, some fear for tiny mountain dweller
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hyD1QqH_obvI6fUgZEzi_2RCV5VgD97BJL9O0

Problem is, in some places, they've run out of room to run, according to scientists. Without cool rocky refuges, the finicky pika can't survive.

Soon, if conservationists have their way, the pika could be the first species in the lower 48 states to get federal endangered species protections primarily because of the effects of climate change.

"It's feeling an exaggerated brunt of global warming," said Greg Loarie, an Earthjustice attorney involved with lawsuits to get the pika protections. "Unlike others, it can't move north. It's stuck."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is scheduled to decide by May 1 whether to take an in-depth look at the pika — a diminutive relative of the rabbit that inhabits 10 Western states — and whether it may need to be on the endangered species list.

A study in 2003 found six of 25 previously known pika populations in the Great Basin had disappeared. Researchers have returned to the 25 sites since then but their results have not yet been published.

"Climate seems to be the single strongest driver but it's interacting" with other factors such as grazing, habitat loss, roads and human disturbance, said Erik Beever, a U.S. Geological Survey ecologist in Anchorage, Alaska, who studied pikas for about 15 years, including the 2003 study in the Great Basin when he was a graduate student.

Part of the problem is that the pika's peculiar traits are suited for alpine conditions: dense fur, slow reproductivity and a thermal regulation system that doesn't do well when temperatures get above about 78 degrees.

[msongs]

1. pikas better start evolving soon...nt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. ...or we should...nt