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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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In the Asahikawa and Tokachi regions, Ainu people reportedly called the pika “Chichit-chu-kamuy”—“the god who chirps chichit.” Ainu culture researcher Hisakazu Fujimura documented the name.
A pika can look like a round-eared, tailless mouse, but it is a rabbit relative. One anatomical giveaway: pikas have 2 pairs of upper incisors, while rodents have just 1 pair.
The Ezo pika’s ancestors are thought to have crossed from Eurasia into Hokkaido when Ice Age sea levels exposed a route via Sakhalin. As the climate warmed, they persisted in scattered, cold rocky refuges.
At roughly 120 g—about the size of a clenched fist—the Ezo pika prepares for winter by carrying plants into rock crevices. It eats its stores through winter instead of hibernating.
That sharp “chit!” is more than a namesake: males give territorial long calls of 4–16 notes. Their strings usually shrink from around 10 notes in spring to just a few by autumn.
At Mount Dairoku in Daisetsuzan’s Tokachi range, motion-triggered cameras recorded more pika activity at night in 5 of 6 survey periods. In October, about 90% of the photos were nocturnal.
Near Shikaribetsu, winter chill stored underground seeps through gaps in boulder fields as cold air in summer. These “wind holes” create cool, mossy habitat where pikas can live even below the high alpine zone.
A Daisetsuzan field video captured pikas carrying rowan leaves to their stores while Siberian chipmunks climbed the same trees for seeds—a neat split-menu use of one plant.
A proposed Shihoro–Lake Shikaribetsu road drew decades of debate; opponents warned it would affect pika habitat. In 1999, Hokkaido canceled the unbuilt section after weighing nature protection and other concerns.
A 2021 survey spent 11.2 hours checking 5 pika habitats in Daisetsuzan National Park and found 26 pieces of litter, mostly plastic. Many were wedged into the rock crevices pikas use.
