When we discuss the various animal types and species that are in peril due the effects of manmade climate change, it is simple to understand how large species such as Bengal Tigers and Florida Panthers fall onto the endangered list. But what of the thousands of other species, many of which we have never heard of? Take for example the Pika. The US Fish and Wildlife department has just denied protection to this tiny creature that could best be described as a cross between a rabbit and a hamster.

Common consensus among environmentalists is that the Pika, owing to its full time heavy fur coat is in direct danger of extinction due to rising global temperatures. Pikas, an exceptionally cute and clever animal live high in the driest mountains across the globe. In North America they live in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Because the Pikas have such a heavy, chinchilla like coat, they don’t fare well in warmer weather. In fact, once the temperature gets above 77 degrees Fahrenheit, these little fellows roast to death. The U.S. has decided that the PIkas will simply hide out in their cook burrows when it gets too warm or move to higher and cooler elevations.

If only it were that simple. As we noted Pikas are pretty clever as well as cute. They actually cut down grass with their incisors, stack it in the sun to dry and then store it for winter food. But the grass they eat doesn’t flourish at higher altitudes, so the Pika cannot simply move to a cooler neighborhood, at least not without starving to death. The concept of migration for animals is not what most people think it to be. A tiger does not simply move to a better piece of land because his current spot lays fallow. Tigers, and Pikas, must migrate over the course of several generations. By the time the Pika would be able to successfully move to a new environment 50 generations of Pikas might need to be born. Granted, the little guys are prolific but generally speaking animals cannot migrate quickly enough to escape the effects of global warming and assorted climate change relationships.