"S-T-R-E-T-C-H"

Pika - 6 Photos

Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada

From that first sighting, the little Pika is unmistakable, with its short stout body and big round ears (Photo #1). Without movement, however, they can be at times, difficult to spot among the rocks & shale because of their camouflage blending in, effortlessly in the rocky terrain.

However, take a Pika who is desperate to reach the top of a dried plant for its remaining seed cache and it's a whole different scenario. That short stout body has unrolled into a long thin shape, standing on tippy toes making that giant effort to gain access to the bounty.

Firstly I would like to say I can relate to the Pika's dilemma. Just being under 5 foot, 3 inches myself in height, there have been too many times when I have had to adopt almost the same technique to try to reach the top shelf for a particular product at the local grocery store. Unlike the Pika, however, I have not tried to use flat rocks to stand on for extra inches (Photo #5 and Photo #6). 

And to give some perspective to the Pika's world, that dried plant was probably only just a little more than 2 feet in height. Obviously, the "lower hanging fruit" had already been harvested being so late in the season, which left  only the hard to reach parts remaining.

And yes, after a great deal of positioning and tapping into his/her contortionist skills, the Pika did finally manage to reap the fruits of his/her labour.

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2

PHOTO #3

PHOTO #4

PHOTO #5

PHOTO #6