PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Lovers of squeaky potato-sized rodents can rejoice this season, as new data is showing the population of pikas is on the rise in the Columbia River Gorge.
The data comes from Cascades Pika Watch, a program of the Oregon Zoo that began in 2018 after the Eagle Creek Fire destroyed much of the pika’s habitat.
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Every summer, volunteers now go out into the field to watch and listen for pikas at specific locations. They then upload their data online for biologists to better track the population.
Pikas typically live on mountains at elevations above 6,000 feet throughout the western United States. But the new data observed a low-elevation population living in the Gorge, just a half-hour drive from Portland.
According to the zoo, last year’s volunteers spotted pikas at two-thirds of the surveyed sites. But this year, the number was even higher. They added 150 volunteers who submitted 558 surveys from 84 locations throughout the Gorge this year.