Pikas in zoos

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Pikas seem like they could be a very charismatic species in a zoo. They are cute, active, and have cool chirps.

Are there any pikas currently in zoos? If not, is there any history of keeping them successfully?

I did a search and found this picture by bongorob of a Afghan pika at the Chester Zoo from 1987. From his description it sounds like that attempt at least did not work well: http://www.zoochat.com/42/afghan-pika-chester-zoo-11-june-35696/
 
Unfortunately, no individuals are to be found in any European collections at the present time :(

As far as the various species that have been held in the past go....

Afghan Pika (Ochotona rufescens) were held at London in 1986, Moscow in 1987 and at Chester - as mentioned above - from 1986 to early 1989. I would imagine the individuals at the former collections came from the same source as those at Chester, judging by the temporal proximity.

Alpine Pika (Ochotona alpina) were - according to ZTL - held by Chester in 1987, although I have no knowledge about the veracity of this.

Daurian Pika (Ochotona daurica) were held by various German collections from the 1980's up until about 2005. Berlin Zoo held the species from 1980 until 1998, so I would imagine this collection had at least some success with the species.

Pallas' Pika (Ochotona pallasi) were briefly held by Tierpark Berlin in the early 1980's.

Plateau Pike (Ochotona curzoniae) were held by a small handful of German collections in the 90's.

Royle's Pika (Ochotona roylei) was held by London at the start of the 20th century.

Steppe Pika (Ochotona pusilla) was held by St Petersburg briefly in the 1990's, and by London at some unknown point according to ZTL.

Turkestan Red Pika (Ochotona rutila) was held by London at some point, according to ZTL.

From this, it appears a lot of attempts were made relatively recently to keep pika, all ultimately unsuccessful.
 
Chester's Afghan Pikas were donated by I.C.I. after a failed attempt to breed them as laboratory animals.

The only pikas I have known Chester to keep were the Afghan, I do not know of any Alpine pikas kept at Chester. No pikas were listed in the annual report mammals stock list and my records are from conversation with a member of the Chester staff.

London Zoo bred a single Afghan pika in 1986, but had problems similar to Chester. http://www.zoohistory.co.uk/projects/first_breedings/lagomorpha

Denver Zoo had success in breeding the Colorado pika in the 1970s.

References
International Zoo Yearbook volume 14 pages 161-163
International Zoo Yearbook volume 15 pages 137-140
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Any explanation on my links?:confused:
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The website that you linked to does have pictures of captive pikas, so obviously someone was working with them somewhere. The website itself seems fairly dubious. There is no contact information and the "new website" link leads to an error message, so I'm guessing that this is someone's fantasy website rather than an actual breeder.
 
DavidBrown said:
The website that you linked to does have pictures of captive pikas, so obviously someone was working with them somewhere. The website itself seems fairly dubious. There is no contact information and the "new website" link leads to an error message, so I'm guessing that this is someone's fantasy website rather than an actual breeder.
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That's what I thought but there are still pikas pictured so they're somewhere out there. I'll look into it further. Perhaps Google Image may be useful in this situation?
 
In the 1980s I remember seeing pikas in a small indoor exhibit in the now-defunct "Adaptations" building at the Pt. Defiance Zoo. They were very cute....
 
ThylacineAlive said:
That's what I thought but there are still pikas pictured so they're somewhere out there. I'll look into it further. Perhaps Google Image may be useful in this situation?
Click to expand...

I looked but just found either pictures of Pikachu (you know that Japanese Pokemon thing) or pictures of other animals like Rock Hyrax labeled as pikas (unless the Henry Doorly Zoo has some pikas disguised as Rock Hyrax:rolleyes:). Chlidonias, you're up!:D
 
It would be awesome to see pikas in zoos. It just depends where the zoo is. Pikas are really sensitive to changing temperature and can't maintain their body heat too well if it reaches a certain temperature.
They're on of the lesser known critters being affected by climate change, so it would be neat for zoos to get involved in their conservation & educate the public about them, especially the zoos that are in states where pikas can be found.
They're super adorable and it's a treat to see them scurrying around their rocky homes.
 
Gulo gulo said:
I am not sure. Maybe if you email the Zoo, they can fill you in on when they plan to start the exhibit and if Pika end up making the cut. It could take some time for a response if you choose to inquire. Be patient.
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I've never had much luck with zoos returning my emails but I'll give it a try. I'm currently waiting for about three or four other zoos to answer emails of mine.
 
Every master plan has one or two animals that are kind of out of left field and probably won't happen. Who knows though, there may be an import afoot but I wouldn't count on it.
 
They would make a change in species being exhibited in zoos. I was privileged to see a wild specimen back in 1968 while visiting Yellowstone National Park at the age of 13. It happened to be darting back and forth through a pile of rocks, carrying blades of grass literally right next to me, as I was fishing alongside a lake there atop a small hillside. Since that sighting, I've wondered several times about why I have never seen them exhibited in zoos.
 
Ituri said:
Every master plan has one or two animals that are kind of out of left field and probably won't happen. Who knows though, there may be an import afoot but I wouldn't count on it.
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I have been proven wrong. According to this article, the Minnesota Zoo not only has already imported Mongolian Pika, but they intend to breed them up and send the to other zoos in the nation.

Ripple Effect: Mn Zoo curator started as natural resources grad
 
Thanks for the intresting article ! Does anyone has some contacts with the Minnesota Zoo and can tell us more about the import - how many were brought in, sex-ratio, keeping method ( groups/pairs? ), breeding results ect ) ? Would be very nice to learn more about it !
 
vogelcommando said:
Thanks for the intresting article ! Does anyone has some contacts with the Minnesota Zoo and can tell us more about the import - how many were brought in, sex-ratio, keeping method ( groups/pairs? ), breeding results ect ) ? Would be very nice to learn more about it !
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And if that person would prefer to pm us about it please include me!:)

~Thylo:cool:
 
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