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ArtistIn times of climate change, the American pika (Ochotona princeps) is adapting to its rocky habitat in the western United States. It has always spent a lot of time in crevices and underground to stay cool, but have now begun to become fully nocturnal, coming out of their burrows during dawn, dusk, or night, when temperatures are moderate. Also, pikas have started to make deeper burrows to take advantage of subsurface temperatures that can be nearly 10° Celsius cooler during the hottest times of the day. Finally, pikas are also changing their diets. Rather than spending hours foraging for grasses, sedges, herbaceous flowering plants, thistles, fireweed, and other wildflowers, they are relying much more on eating moss that is easily accessible year-round and can be foraged more quickly, so they spend less time above ground. The image is an exquisitely detailed National Geographic quality close-up illustration showing three pikas foraging among the dry vegetation under a moonlit sky. The style is a biological illustration with extreme scientific precision, drawn as line art in bold colors.
Pikas become virtually nocturnal, burrow deeper, and change their diet to adapt to a hotter climate.