Plateau pikas overwinter on the roof of the world through metabolic inhibition and feeding on yak dung

A research team composed of researchers from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences , has just completed a mysterious small mammal living in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China in 13 years.

Plateau pikas cannot hibernate, so their survival strategies are very interesting, especially in the context of the current global climate change, how will animals adjust their survival strategies? In addition, because pikas, as animal husbandry animals, have a food competition relationship with domestic yak, this information is also of great significance to the economic development of Tibetan herdsmen who raise yak .

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has an average elevation of about 4,000 meters .

This study measured the daily energy consumption of two wild pika populations and found that the energy consumption of pikas in winter was reduced by about 30%

In areas where the density of domestic yak is high, individuals have also been observed to eat yak feces.

Researcher John Speakman from the Institute of Genetics and Development, the author of the paper, said: “This research started from a small project 15 years ago.

Co-corresponding author Zhang Yanming from the Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology said: "In the past few decades, after overgrazing caused the grassland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, plateau pikas and other small mammals often experienced population outbreaks.

Co-corresponding author Wang Dehua from the Institute of Zoology said: " For many years, we have been very interested in the physiology of the plateau pika adapting to extreme environments (cold and low oxygen)

Picture: Plateau pikas living in the wild