{"id":24828,"date":"2018-10-08T16:25:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T23:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=24828"},"modified":"2018-10-10T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T01:38:09","slug":"pika-predator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=24828","title":{"rendered":"Pika predator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The pika is generally acknowledged as an adorable creature. Beyond its native cuteness, it is a herbivore and so is appealing because it feeds on nothing but plants.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, I revisited the pika colony <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=24798\">discussed earlier<\/a>. Snow had fallen and the pikas obviously struggled with snow having cut off access to food.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, a much greater threat than a seasonal change beset them. They had to face a new, and effective, predator: a long-tailed weasel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A pika forages for vegetative delectables in the snow.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24829\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/pika181007bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A long-tailed weasel moved into the pika colony. Its slim body enabled it to enter the cavities between the rocks where pikas lived.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24834\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/weasel181007cs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The weasel arrived and began to prowl for comestibles.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24831\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/weasel181007bs2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why are you terrorizing us? We have done you no harm.&#8221; <br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24830\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/pika181007as.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am unconcerned with whether you are nurturing, only that you are nutritious.&#8221; <br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24832\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/weasel181007as2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The pika is generally acknowledged as an adorable creature. Beyond its native cuteness, it is a herbivore and so is appealing because it feeds on nothing but plants. Yesterday, I revisited the pika colony discussed earlier. Snow had fallen &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=24828\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mammals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24828"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24851,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24828\/revisions\/24851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}