Background of the Mount Shasta Pika
In 1898 the United States Government
sponsored a biological expedition to Mount Shasta California. The
Division of Biology of the United States Department of Agriculture
sent scientist C. Hart Merriam. His report, entitled "Results of a
Biological Survey of Mount Shasta, California," was published in
1899. The Division of Biology later became the U. S. Department of
Fish and Wildlife. The party spent the summer on the slopes of the
mountain and collected and recorded all aspects of the mountain's
biology. See the "History"
of the Shasta
for a summary of early explorations around the
Here is the section from this report concerning Ochotona.
Ochotona schisticeps. Cony;
Pika. [Ochotona princeps Gray-headed Pika, American
Pika, Rock Rabbit, Piping Hare, Whistling Hare]
The original photograph was taken by F. Stephens and the
drawing is by W.J. Fenn.
Relatively rare and confined to small and widely separated
colonies. During our circuit of the mountain, made near
timberline the latter part of July, we saw what we took to be
signs of conies among rocks east of Mud Creek Canyon, but
finding no more believed we had been mistaken, until the evening
of July 24, when we camped on some rivulets of snow water on the
north side of Shastina. Here we found a small scattered colony
reaching up in the slide rock from about 8,000 to nearly 10,000
feet, and a specimen was secured by Vernon Bailey. The next day
we found signs in Cascade Gulch a mile or two northwest of Horse
Camp. Later, when camped in the alpine hemlocks on the small
west branches of Squaw Creek, we found a colony in the slide
rock close by. Conies were afterwards found on both sides of Red
Butte and on the east side of Gray Butte, and Osgood heard one
near the head of Mud Creek Canyon. In all, 14 specimens were
This species differs in habits and voice from those of the
Rocky Mountains; it is less noisy and less often heard in the
middle of the day, for which reason it is more apt to escape
detection, and its common note, instead of the usual 'bleat,'
is a loud shrill eh' eh,' or eh' eh' eh'. It
seems to be most active in the late afternoon and on moonlight
evenings, and its voice is heard at all hours of the night
On most mountains where conies live, their well-known
accumulations of plants of various kinds, cut and piled on the
rocks to dry, are conspicuous objects. But on Shasta, where I
often saw the animals carrying freshly cut plants to their
dens in the slide rock, I failed to find a single 'haystack.'
In one place a few fresh stems of Polygonum newberryi,
with is large broad leaves, were seen, and in another a large
accumulation of old brown leaves of the same species mixed
with a larger quantity of Phyllodoce empetriformis--apparently
left over from the previous year. But the only real 'haystack'
found on the mountain by any of the party was discovered on
the east side of Gray Butte September 25 by Vernon bailey. It
contained Epilobium spicatum, Holodiscus discolor,
Monardella odoratissima, Hieracium horridum, Ceanothus
velutinus, and two species of grass. The bulk of the
material was Epilobium and Monardella.
On the west slope of Goose Nest Mountain, just east of
Little Shasta Valley, Walter K. Fisher found conies common in
an area of slide rock which extends in a practically unbroken
stretch from the top to the botton of the mountain. I have not
seen the specimens.
Above excerpts from
Results of a Biological Survey of Mount Shasta, California
by C. Hart Merriam, 1899.
for further information.
After reading this section, I
decided I would go look for pikas at these mentioned locations.
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