{"id":292981,"date":"2025-11-15T10:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292981\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T10:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:07:08","slug":"pikas-are-potato-sized-squeakers-and-now-were-learning-how-many-call-central-oregon-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292981\/","title":{"rendered":"Pikas are potato-sized squeakers – and now we’re learning how many call Central Oregon home"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s a good time to be a pika in Oregon, or a volunteer trained to spot them. New survey data from\u00a0Cascades Pika Watch<\/a>\u00a0– which included Central Oregon for the first time – shows numbers of the potato-sized mammals, as well as the people who survey them, are on the rise.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pikas, tiny rabbit relatives known for their distinctive,\u00a0squeak-toy-like calls, typically live on mountain slopes at elevations above 6,000 feet, but\u00a0a unique low-elevation population is living at the Columbia River Gorge, just a half-hour from Portland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire, surveys indicate the pika ((the preferred pronunciation is PIKE-uh) population in the area has been steadily increasing.\u00a0Last year<\/a>,\u00a0volunteers spotted pikas at more than two-thirds of the sites surveyed, and that number rose even higher in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we found pikas at 82% of sites surveyed, which is close to the pre-fire population numbers,\u201d said\u00a0Dr. Johanna Varner, scientific adviser for\u00a0the Cascades Pika\u00a0Watch program. \u201cThis is great news for the Gorge\u00a0pika\u00a0population.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is growing concern among scientists about the future of pikas, as climate change has caused population declines and local extinctions in parts of the pika\u2019s range. But Varner says the season\u2019s results are very encouraging \u2014 particularly in the Gorge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data from this program tell us this population might be more resilient than some others,\u201d Varner said. \u201cWe\u2019re really hopeful that pikas in Oregon continue to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first time, Cascades Pika Watch ventured east as well this year, partnering with the\u00a0High Desert Museum<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Discover Your Forest<\/a>\u00a0to survey for pikas in Central Oregon. Trained volunteers detected pikas at 11 out of 27 sites in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to begin the process of monitoring pikas in Central Oregon,\u201d said Jon Nelson, who oversees citizen science programming at the High Desert Museum. \u201cPikas may be small, but they can tell us a lot about the larger ecosystems where they live.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pikas aren\u2019t the only creatures increasing in number this year \u2014 the ranks of pika watchers grew as well. More than 287 trained citizen scientists submitted 683 surveys from 109 locations throughout the Gorge and Central Oregon. In the Gorge, that\u2019s a 62% increase in survey respondents from\u00a0last year<\/a>, which was itself a record-breaking year for the program.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Every summer,\u00a0volunteers from\u00a0Cascades\u00a0Pika\u00a0Watch<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a program of the Oregon Zoo \u2014\u00a0head into the field with binoculars to stake out\u00a0pika\u00a0hot spots, record their locations and listen for the pika\u2019s telltale squeak. Then they upload their data to a website, helping biologists to better understand where\u00a0pikas live and whether their range is shifting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEach year, this program has gotten bigger and better,\u201d Varner said. \u201cThe future of Cascades Pika Watch is really bright, and there’s still plenty of room for more people to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Cascades\u00a0Pika\u00a0Watch will return next year, and aspiring\u00a0pika watchers are encouraged to sign up for free in-person or online trainings.\u00a0Sites are accessed via public hiking trails, and no special skills are required. Sign up for updates at\u00a0oregonzoo.org\/pika<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s a good time to be a pika in Oregon, or a volunteer trained to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-292981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}