Ladakh pika
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Ladakh pika ( Ochotona ladacensis ) |
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| Ochotona ladacensis | ||||||||||||
| ( Günther , 1875) |
The Ladakh Pfeifhase ( Ochotona ladacensis ) is a kind of the Pfeifhasen (Ochotonidae) within the hare-like (Lagomorpha). It occurs in the area of the Himalayas in parts of the southwestern People's Republic of China to the Kashmir region in northwest Pakistan and the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh .
With a body size of up to 24 centimeters and a weight of up to 320 grams, it is one of the larger species of the pika. The animals use dry valleys and rocky mountain regions with little vegetation at altitudes of 4,200 to 5,400 meters as their habitat. They dig burrows in meadows, in gravel areas or in the vicinity of bushes and feed on different plants like other pigeons; in winter they probably eat the roots of primroses mainly underground .
The first scientific description comes from Albert Günther from 1875; the taxonomic classification of the pigeon hares is difficult and has changed several times over time, which can be attributed to the great similarity of the individual species. Due to the comparatively large distribution area and the lack of risks that endanger the survival of the species, the species is not considered endangered.
features
general characteristics
The Ladakh Pfeifhase is a pipe hare with a head-trunk length of 15.0 to 24.0 centimeters, according to other sources from 18.0 to 22.9 centimeters, and a weight of 100 to 320 grams; it is one of the larger types of pigeon hares. The rear feet are 32 to 40 millimeters long. The back fur is woolly and in summer it is sand-colored to yellowish-red-brown. The head has brown, pale brown or reddish brown spots, the forehead is reddish brown. The outside of the ears is light brown to orange-brown and the ventral side is gray to whitish-sand-yellow. In winter the fur is curly and woolly as well as gray to ocher colored. The hair above the neck gland is yellow. The ears are large and rounded with an ear length of 22 to 33 millimeters, the inside is sandy yellow and they have a thick hair of reddish hair on the back. The lips are black like the sympatric black-lipped pigeon ( Ochotona curzoniae ), compared to this, the Ladakh pigeon is slightly larger and differs from him by the color.
Skull features
The skull is large and curved, it reaches a length of 51 to 50 millimeters, a maximum width of 24 to 26 millimeters and a height of 16 to 18 millimeters. The incisor window and the palate window are usually completely separate from each other, but there are individuals who lack the separating bone bar. The region between the eyes is narrow and the eye sockets are very large. The sides of the zygomatic arches are largely parallel and the tympanic bladder is small.
| 2 | · | 0 | · | 3 | · | 2 | = 26 |
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The animals have like all pikas in the upper jaw, two each front teeth (incisors) followed by a longer tooth gap ( diastema ) and three Vorbackenzähnen (Praemolares) and two molars (molars). In the branch of the lower jaw there is only one incisor and only two premolars, and three molars. The animals have a total of 26 teeth. The incisors are long, probably as an adaptation to the winter diet of primrose roots.
distribution
The distribution area of the Ladakh pika extends in the People's Republic of China from southwestern Xinjiang over western Qinghai and to the southeast of the autonomous region Tibet , where the species lives sympathetically with the black-lipped pika . It also extends to the Kashmir region and there to northwest Pakistan and the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh .
The species prefers dry valleys and rocky mountain regions with little vegetation at heights of 4,200 to 5,400 meters as a habitat.
Way of life
The alpine habitat of the Ladakh pika is characterized by severe drought and little vegetation. In some parts of the vegetation consists only of isolated populations of primrose ( Primula ) or sedge Carex moorcroftii and to the sand herbs belonging Arenaria musciformis . Primroses in particular determine the occurrence of the animals, which means that they are sometimes only found spotty.
Little is known about the way of life. The animals are diurnal, with the main activity taking place in the morning and evening. They avoid times of day with strong sunlight and very windy periods, but are also active in winter and do not have a hibernation phase. They feed generally on the available plants, and in winter they probably mainly eat the roots of the primroses underground. Unlike many other species of pika, they do not form hay bales for winter storage. They dig burrows in open areas, meadow areas, gravel areas or near bushes. and live socially in family groups or small colonies with clearly defined territories. When threatened, they withdraw into their burrows with a very high-pitched whistle as a warning call. The animals overcome open areas with short runs and jumps, but most of the time they remain motionless. The main activity area is limited to an area of 400 m 2 around the building. In populated areas there are numerous burrows and traces of manure in small pits under stones, but the population density of the animals is rather thin with a maximum of less than 300 individuals per km 2 .
The reproductive phase of this species is between late June and late July. Young animals were observed between July and August and sub- adults between July and September.
Systematics
The Ladakh Pfeifhase is assigned as an independent species to the Pfeifhasen (genus Ochotona ) and there the subgenus Conothoa . The first scientific description comes from Albert CLG Günther , the then head of the zoological department at the Natural History Museum in London, from 1875, who named the species as Lagomys ladacensis and, together with it, several other species of the hare-like such as the big-eared pika ( Ochotona macrotis ), the Yarkand hare ( Lepus yarkandensis ) and the Lepus pamirensis , which is now classified as a subspecies of the desert hare ( Lepus tibetanus ) . He was referring to the description of individuals by Ferdinand Stoliczka and John Anderson from the Ladakh region , who had assigned them to the black-lipped pika ( Ochotona curzoniae ) and whose attribution he, like his colleague William Thomas Blanford, questioned. The terra typica , the place where the types were found, was given by Chagra in the Leh district . Ochotona auritus , which was described by Blanford in the same year and only a month later , is considered a synonym for the species . As this most ear pikas ( O. macrotis ) with O. auritus synonymisierte, was subsequently O. auritus often understood as a synonym and sometimes as a subspecies of the large ear-pikas.
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Phylogenetic systematics of some Pfeifehasen according to Yu et al. 2000
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Phylogenetic systematics of some pigeons according to Niu et al. 2004
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As with most pigeon hares, the systematic classification of the Ladakh pigeon hares is difficult due to the great similarities of the species and has accordingly changed several times over time. Some authors consider the Ladakh pika as a subspecies of the black-lipped pika, with which it occurs sympatric in parts of Tibet .
In 2000, on the basis of sequences of the mitochondrial DNA, the Koslow pika ( Ochotona koslowi ) was identified as a sister species of the Ladakh piper, and according to these results, both together formed the sister group of the Royle pika ( Ochotona roylei ) and the big-eared pika . Together with the Forrest-Pfeifhasen ( Ochotona forresti ) and the Red-eared-Pfeifhasen ( Ochotona erythrotis ) these kinds were summarized as "Mountain group", while the classical division according to sub-genera was rejected as paraphyletic . In 2004 a phylogenetic analysis based on the sequence of cytochrome b was published , in which the sister species relationship between O. koslowi and O. ladacensis was not confirmed. Instead, O. ladacensis turned out to be the basal sister species of a taxon from O. koslowi , O. rutila , O. iliensis , O. roylei and O. macrotis , the entire group plus a few other species became a “Surrounding Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Group “Classified. After Andrei Alexandrowitsch Lissowski revised the taxonomy in 2013 on the basis of craniometric features and the sequence of cytochrome b, some details of the phylogenetic classification were changed, but the close relationship between the species was confirmed. Lissowski put these species together in the subgenus Conothoa .
Apart from the nominate form, no subspecies are distinguished within the species .
Hazard and protection
The species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) as not endangered ("least concern") due to its large distribution area and the comparatively high population numbers. Existence-endangering threats are not known, but no more up-to-date data is available. The distribution area includes the Changthang Nature Reserve in Tibet, which is the largest nature reserve in Asia and the second largest in the world at 298,000 km 2 .
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m A.A. Lissovsky: Ladak Pika - Ochotona ladacensis. In: Don E. Wilson, TE Lacher, Jr., Russell A. Mittermeier (editors): Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Lagomorphs and Rodents 1. (HMW, Volume 6), Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016; Pp. 58-59. ISBN 978-84-941892-3-4 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Ladak Pika. In: Andrew T. Smith , Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008; P. 283. ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 .
- ^ A b Andrey A. Lissovsky: Taxonomic revision of pikas Ochotona (Lagomorpha, Mammalia) at the species level. In: Mammalia 2014; 78 (2): 199-216. doi : 10.1515 / mammalia-2012-0134
- ↑ Family Ochotonidae, Genu Ochotona. In: Andrew T. Smith , Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008; P. 275. ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 .
- ↑ a b c d e Joseph A. Chapman, John EC Flux (Ed.): Rabbits, Hares and Pikas. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. (PDF; 11.3 MB) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Gland 1990; Pp. 38-39. ISBN 2-8317-0019-1 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Ochotona ladacensis in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017.3. Listed by: Andrew T. Smith , W. Li, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
- ^ A b c Albert Günther : Descriptions of some Leporine Mammals from Central Asia. The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology ser. 4, 16, 1875; P. 231 ff. ( Digitized version )
- ↑ Don E. Wilson & DeeAnn M. Reeder (eds.): Ochotona (Conothoa) macrotis auritus in Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed).
- ↑ a b Ning Yu, Changlin Zheng, Ya-Ping Zhang, Wen-Hsiung Li: Molecular Systematics of Pikas (Genus Ochotona) Inferred from Mitochondrial DNA Sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 16 (1) July 2000; Pp. 85-95. doi : 10.1006 / mpev.2000.0776 .
- ↑ a b Yidong Niu, Fuwen Wei, Ming Li, Xiaoming Liu, Zuojian Feng: Phylogeny of pikas (Lagomorpha, Ochotona) inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences. Folia Zoologica - International Journal of Vertebrate Zoology 53 (2), 2004; Pp. 141-155. ( Full text ).
- ↑ a b Don E. Wilson & DeeAnn M. Reeder (eds.): Ochotona ladacensis in Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed).
literature
- AA Lissovsky: Ladak Pika - Ochotona ladacensis. In: Don E. Wilson, TE Lacher, Jr., Russell A. Mittermeier (editors): Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Lagomorphs and Rodents 1. (HMW, Volume 6), Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016; Pp. 58-59. ISBN 978-84-941892-3-4 .
- Joseph A. Chapman, John EC Flux (Eds.): Rabbits, Hares and Pikas. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. (PDF; 11.3 MB) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Gland 1990; Pp. 38-39. ISBN 2-8317-0019-1 .
- Ladak Pika. In: Andrew T. Smith , Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008; P. 283. ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 .
Web links
- Ochotona ladacensis inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017.3. Listed by: Andrew T. Smith , W. Li, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
