As you keep going west and highest, the pikas will become more and more friendly! I have just upload a Moupin pika (a very closed cousin of your Gansu pika ) which I took in Ganzi, west Sichuan, I use the macro mode to photo it, and my camera was nearly touch its nose! http://www.zoochat.com/733/moupin-pika-342702/
As you keep going west and highest, the pikas will become more and more friendly! I have just upload a Moupin pika (a very closed cousin of your Gansu pika ) which I took in Ganzi, west Sichuan, I use the macro mode to photo it, and my camera was nearly touch its nose! http://www.zoochat.com/733/moupin-pika-342702/
I can't believe you saw 2 different Pika species AND a mountain weasel!! How long did it take/how difficult was it to see these species? (and the hog badger too?) How many Pika species have you seen total in your travels? Also do you know your mammal species count total (zoos + wild)? I guess you may have separate totals for ones you've photographed, and ones you've merely seen.
I can't believe you saw 2 different Pika species AND a mountain weasel!! How long did it take/how difficult was it to see these species? (and the hog badger too?) How many Pika species have you seen total in your travels? Also do you know your mammal species count total (zoos + wild)? I guess you may have separate totals for ones you've photographed, and ones you've merely seen.
the black-lipped pika is easy -- you can see probably hundreds in one field of view up on the plateau! The Gansu pika was the only one I saw (they are forest-dwellers and solitary so much harder to actually find). I briefly saw a Moupin pika at Wanglang which I wasn't sure of the identity of because I didn't know which species were there but Ituri on the other photo found that they are there. In Mongolia I saw a lot of Pallas' pikas at Ikh Nart but did not see any Daurian pikas at Hustai. I've got photos of the Pallas' pikas too, but there's no Mongolia gallery.
I don't keep zoo animal totals (or photographed animal totals), but my wild mammal list is I think 194 species. I mainly travel in southeast Asia where animals are hard to find. If I went to Africa I could probably increase that list by 50% in a few weeks!
