Influence of food hoarding behavior on the over-winter survival of pikas in strongly seasonal environments.

Food hoarding is a behavioral adaptation of some herbivores to manage food availability through time and space. In strongly seasonal environments, where summer growing seasons are short relative to winter, an earlier start to hoarding should increase the amount of vegetation stored for winter and improve subsequent survival. We examined hoarding behavior ('haying') and its impact on survival for a small alpine lagomorph, the collared pika (Ochotona collaris) in Yukon, Canada.

Demographic analysis of a declining pika Ochotona collaris population: linking survival to broad-scale climate patterns via spring snowmelt patterns.

1. Demographic analysis is essential in order to determine which factors, such as survival, fertility and other life-history characteristics, have the greatest influence on a population's rate of growth (lambda). 2.