Sardinian pika
Sardinian pika in LOST ZOO
The Sardinian pikalooks like a combination of a rabbit and a Guniean pig.
Like the Northern pika on Hokkaido, also the Sardinian pika has short limbs, very round body, rounded ears and almost no external tail.
Like in nature, the Sardinian pikas live also in our LOST Zoo in family groups and share duties of gathering food and keeping watch.
If the visitors keep silent, sometimes they can hear the pika’s high-pitched alarm call. Because of its voice the pika is also known as the "whistling hare".
The Sardinian pika was endemic to the islands of Sardinia, Corsica and some smaller neighbouring islands in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Sardinian pika, the pikas, the hares and rabbits form in the zoological system the order Lagomorpha, which is closely related to the rodents, but differs in their teeth. Pikas and rabbits have four incisors in the upper jaw and have enamel on the front and back of the incisors, whereas rodents have only 2 incisors and the enamel only on the front side.
Body weight: 504-525 g
Body length: about 30 cm
Food: Pure vegetarian, especially grass.
Habitat: Grassland and shrub land from the sea level up to 800 m in habitats where the pika can dig its burrow.
Extinction: The Sardinian pika became extinct in Corsica and Sardinia during the Roman times, but survived until the late 1700s or early 1800s on the small island of Tavolara, which was uninhabited until 1780. It became extinct because of habitat destruction and introduction of dogs and cats and of ecological competitors like rodents and rabbits.
