Talk:Pika

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Classification

Prolagus represents its own family Prolagidae (MSW 3rd ed.). There are probably a few more Ochotona species, but I don't go in further detail now. Just have a look in my lists. Ucucha See Mammal Taxonomy 16:10, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Rock rabbit, and Rabbit vs. Hyrax

In some areas and in some languages, there's a big confusion between Rabbits and Hyraxes, with their name mistakenly being used interchangably. Wikipedia falls into this confusion as well: rock rabbit currently redirects to Pika, which explains that "rock rabbit" and "coney" are alternative names for this animal. But, Cape Hyrax also says that "rock rabbit" is also a name for that animal, and "coney" actually refers to it, not to rabbits. I'm not sure what should be done about this mess, but perhaps a good start will be to make at least rock rabbit a disambiguation page pointing to both? And while we're at it, the disambiguation page Coney doesn't point to either Pika or Cape Hyrax, but rather to Rabbit - and that article does not even mention the word Coney in it.... Nyh 07:02, 10 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about Hyraxes, but I did some research earlier this evening, and it sounds like the Degu may be closely related to the pika. DNA test suggest that both belong to the order of Lagomorph, along with rabbits. -M.Neko

"Coney" is a common name of the European Rabbit. I have heard that the first use of the name for hyraxes was in the King James Bible (for lack of a better word, I imagine). It is also applied to pikas. Using the common name of a familiar animal for unfamiliar ones of somewhat similar appearance is frequent; another that comes to mind is "ringtail cat" for the procyonid Bassariscus.

As far as Degus being lagomorphs, their anatomy clearly places them with the other caviomorph rodents, and is very different from that of lagomorphs, so that if there is a relationship, it is between all caviomorphs (including guinea pigs, chinchillas, and capybaras) and all lagomorphs, and the DNA evidence doesn't support that. DNA evidence cannot be evaluated out-of-context, and mistakes can be made. Even the Wikipedia article Octodontidae says that "...this has not been supported by further analyses."

I made Rock rabbit a disambiguation page, and added hyrax to the Coney disambiguation page.--Curtis Clark 15:41, 23 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Degus are not lagomorphs! And pikas aren't rabbits, but they're lagomorphs. From what I know, pikas are also known as conies. Dora Nichov 06:43, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation

Everyone I know in the US pronounces it "paikǝ" (if I have my IPA right).--Curtis Clark 15:42, 30 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, like pie-ka. Dora Nichov 06:43, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pikachu

Looks like this is where they got the idea for a pikachu.

That's just what I was thinking--Hibernian 23:57, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's just what I was thinking as well. I'm trying very hard not to vandalize this page and change the picture to Pikachu (don't worry, I'm not going to, but it's tempting). --bī-RŌ 01:20, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pikachu isn't a pika. - UtherSRG (talk) 10:58, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

He's a "mouse" type. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.156.123.94 (talk • contribs) .

But bear in mind that the Japanese use the term mouse (nezumi.. literally "rat") to refer to thigns as wide ranging as ermines & marmosets. Apart from the ears & tail a Pikachu is a dead ringer for a Pika. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Winterdenni (talk • contribs)

Apart from the ears and tail, many mammals look like pikas.--Curtis Clark 05:02, 18 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree too. Pikas look nothing like Pikachu. Come on, pikas have round ears and a fat body, also no tail either. Not to mention they can't thundershock other people... *winks* Dora Nichov 06:45, 2 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah... Hamsters look a lot like pikas too. Dora Nichov 13:38, 23 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Besides, Pikachu's name comes from the Japanese words pika pika meaning "to flash" (like electricity), and chū, the word used for a rodent's squeak. -SaturnYoshi ^{THE VOICES} 16:41, 23 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think that the creators of Pikachu planned for it to fit both flash and this animal. The original Pikachu artwork is far too similar to this particular animal for it to be a coincidence. The original Pikachu was even more similar than the current one. -- T H L^CCD 01:17, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

From personal observation, Japanese puns usually have many layers. It wouldn't surprise me that the creators used both interpreations to make the choice for this name--ZayZayEM 05:45, 8 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe I'll believe you if you have a picture of it... Dora Nichov 09:01, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

All the other Pokemon do not actually look -exactly- like the creatures the represent, and the Japanese do not only use their own language to form words. Characters are often modified to fit the artist's interpritation of the idea. It's far to similar to a Pika to say its anything else. Where is "mouse" in japanese in his name? Hares and rabbits don't exactly squeek, but they are larger, as is Pikachu, and last I check Pikachu actually says his name. imongi 19:48, January 22, 2007

A pika is neither hare nor rabbit. They're just from the same order. Dora Nichov 08:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes they are from the same order. Lagomorpha includes two families, the pikas and rabbits. --Belg4mit 22:31, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Right. That's what I said. Dora Nichov 10:50, 22 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Submission for External Link

I am suggesting to add this as a link -

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ochotonidae.html

It is the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web page for the "Family Ochotonidae:pikas"
As far as I can see, they don't sell stuff... Gooblyglob (talk) 23:56, 17 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Citation

The Donald Grayson article is "Mammalian responses to Middle Holocene climatic change in the Great Basin of the western United States" (2000), Journal of Biogeography 27(1), p181-192. He says no such thing as "human activity and global climate change appeared to be pushing the American pika population to ever-higher elevations and thus possibly toward extinction." His conclusion states, in part, "As a result, we cannot as yet draw secure inferences concerning small mammal responses to global warming conditions in the Great Basin from the Homestead Cave faunal assemblages. Nonetheless, those assemblages do provide our first detailed understanding of mammalian reponses to Middle Holocene warmth and aridity in this region." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.64.132.97 (talk) 20:01, 24 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Wiley Interscience conclusion states: "Prehistoric alterations in the distribution of pika population in the Great Basin were driven by climate change and attendant impacts on vegetation. Today, Great Basin pikas contend with both climate change and anthropogenic impacts and thus may be on the brink of extinction.", which is pretty much exactly what this article says. Note that is says nothing about anthropogenic climate change, nor the cause of the climate change in question. I removed the reference request template and added the reference. The dates do not correspond, so I removed "january 2006". --139.168.209.67 (talk) 05:25, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Related to chinchilla?

Is the pika related to the chinchilla? Not only do they look similar, what else is striking is that they inhabit cooler mountainous climates; and in fact both can suffer from heat stroke over 80 degrees. (As a side note, I breed standard grey chinchillas for the pet store trade.) Discpad (talk) 16:46, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Chinchilla is a rodent. Pikas are lagomorphs. Pikas are as closely related to the Chinchilla as they are to any rat or mouse. Which is to say, not very. - UtherSRG (talk) 17:35, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]