{"id":881329,"date":"2026-09-03T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/881329\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:46:11","slug":"even-the-smallest-critters-are-preparing-for-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/881329\/","title":{"rendered":"Even the smallest critters are preparing for winter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While many of us are enjoying the final days of summer, some of the smallest residents of the Rocky Mountains are already preparing for winter.<\/p>\n<p>Pikas are busy gathering grasses, leaves, flowers and other plants, collecting them into piles of food they\u2019ll rely on when the snow arrives.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pika\" data-caption=\"Photo\/Mike Reece\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"f8acf99d-639b-44d9-88c7-9dbb2094e2c9\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pika 3 reece.jpg\"\/>Photo\/Mike Reece<\/p>\n<p>The small, rabbit relative lives among the rocky slopes and talus fields of the mountains, where it can often be heard before it is spotted.<\/p>\n<p>During the warmer months, pikas spend much of their time gathering vegetation and building what are known as \u201chaypiles\u201d \u2014 carefully stocked food stores that help them survive the winter.<\/p>\n<p>Cochrane photographer Mike Reece captured these photos during a recent shoot in Kananaskis Country, offering a glimpse of one of nature\u2019s smallest and busiest winter preparations.<\/p>\n<p>So while summer isn\u2019t quite over yet, the pikas know what\u2019s coming \u2014 and they\u2019re getting ready, one mouthful at a time.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"pika 2\" data-caption=\"Photo\/Mike Reece\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"00fe458c-336d-4917-bacd-52ae2812b80a\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pika 2 sm reece_0.jpg\"\/>Photo\/Mike Reece<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many of us are enjoying the final days of summer, some of the smallest residents of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-881329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}