The American pika has been a favorite of backpackers and hikers for generations. The small rodents, a relative of the rabbit, look something like chipmunks and tend to carry small ‘bouquets’ of foliage in their mouths.

The animals, which tend to live in the mountains of western North America are somewhat unusual in that they do not hibernate but disappear underground in the hot summer months. Because they do not hibernate, they spend the warmer months gathering wildflowers and grasses into ‘hay piles’ to eat in the winter.

Pikas have a high metabolic rate and are covered in thick fur, including the insides of their ears and the bottoms of their feet. They are perfectly suited to the cold temperatures of high elevations, in the summer months however the animals need to retreat from the uncomfortable, warm, temperatures.

Now, a report published in the January 29 issue of the journal Biogeography says that warmer temperatures are threatening the future of the Pikas in the California mountains.

Researchers studied 67 locations known to host pika populations and found that the animals have disappeared from 10 of them or 15 percent of the locations examined. According to Joseph Stewart, a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz and first author of the paper, pika populations are most likely to become locally extinct at sites with a small habitat area and high summer temperatures.

“This same pattern of extinctions at sites with high summer temperatures has also been observed in the Great Basin region. Backpackers and hikers often see pikas scurrying back and forth across the rocks, gathering little bouquets of wildflowers in their mouths. They are uniquely adapted to cold temperatures, but these same adaptations make the species vulnerable to global warming.” Stewart said in a statement.

According to the researchers the pikas are being forced to spend more time underground to avoid overheating. This means less time for foraging which diminishes the time spent gathering food for the winter, which increases the likelihood of local extinction. It also could mean trouble for other local wildlife. Pikas are an important food source for animals such as owls and stoats.

“Pikas are a model organism for studying climate change, and their decline at low-elevation sites suggests that the future for other species is not great either. The problem is that the climate is changing faster than species can adapt or disperse to new sites,” said Stewart.

To predict the future well being of Pikas the researchers used a variety of prediction models and scenarios. In all, using 34 different global climate models, the found the animals could disappear from 39 to 88 percent of their traditional habitat in California.

If meager action is taken to reign in greenhouse gas emissions, the animals can be expected to disappear from 75 percent of sites by 2070, with a range of 51 to 88 percent depending on the climate model used. If aggressive action is take to reduce greenhouse gasses, the pikas are expected to disappear from 51 percent of sites. That number, again, ranges from 39 to 79 percent depending on the climate model used.

“It looks like we’re going to lose pikas from many areas where people have been used to seeing them. It’s a loss not just for the pikas but also for future generations who won’t get to have that experience,” said Stewart.

Since 2007, the Center for Biological Diversity has been petitioning government at various levels to do more to protect the Pika. This has included calls to place the animal on the endangered species list. To date the organization has been unsuccessful.