There aren’t many critters crazy enough to live year round on mountaintops. So any that do live there have got to be tough. Like the American pika, an adorable little round-eared — and noisy — animal that lives in the rocks at the highest elevations.
But are pikas tough enough to survive a warming planet? University of Wyoming researcher Embere Hall is trying answer that question.
She says, twice the American pika has been petitioned for listing on the endangered species list, but both times it was turned down because of a lack of scientific data on the species. Hall says she hopes her research can help fill in some of that gap in the future.