Let’s Take A Look!

Many people don’t know what this little mountain cupcake is, so we thought we would take a moment to explain a little about them! The Pikas are the world’s smallest members of the Lagomorph (Rabbit) family.

The Alaskan Collared Pikas are some of the rarest in the world, only found in certain alpine climates here in Alaska and a very small portion of Canada.

They are about the size of a hamster when fully grown and they spend their days hopping around and collecting alpine flowers and grasses to store for winter. They do not hibernate, so they must stock up “hay piles” in order to survive the cold winters.

All of these photos were taken in the very high mountain boulder fields right in Hatcher Pass Alaska and all feature out favorite Pika, Hatcher (I bet you know here he got his name haha)!

These animals are extremely skittish, wildly fast, and are renown for their difficulty to photograph. It took our photographer Phillip Flippo three months of practice and hours visiting with them almost everyday to gain their trust so that he could get these shots, so I hope you like his photos (and hopefully your plushie and fall in love with the Pikas as much as we did!

Get your own Hatcher the Pika Plushie Here!