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Ili pika, a small mountainous animal from China, has been photographed for the first time in 20 years.
More rare than the panda, there are less than 1,000 of these teddy bear-like mammals living in the Tianshan mountain range, CNN reports.
Weidong Li discovered the pika, formally known as Ochotona iliensis, in 1983. The conservationist named the tiny animal after his hometown, Ili. In July 2014, Li caught the elusive pika on camera for the first time since the early 1990s, CNN continues to report.
Business Insider says between 2002 and 2003 two researchers completed seven trips to 12 different sites to study the population of the animal. After 37 days of searching, the two men were unable to spot the pika.
Listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the mammal lives at high altitudes, making it susceptible to climatic changes, The Dodo reports. The population has been decreasing since it was estimated to be just 2,000 in 1990.
Ili pikas are solitary animals and isn’t as vocal as other pika species so if danger is nearby, Li says Ili pikas are unable to alert each other. Disease may also be a factor in its decline, CNN adds.
Agencies/Canadajournal
In 2007, Li retired early to throw himself into searching for the pika.
Ili pikas will end up playing a game of hide and seek that won’t end up in a happy rediscovery.
“Then, last summer, the man who originally discovered the species in ’83, Weidong Li, had a chance encounter with the elusive creature. He and a group of researchers were out in the Tianshan Mountains for, what else, pika spotting, when around noon they saw one and snapped the iconic picture above.”
It was hardly a chance encounter if that was the purpose of their visit, is it?
Walking around Fota recently, nearly all the animals are on the endangered species list. Our ancestors and us have really left a mark on the place. Soon enough a zoo will be filled with different types of dogs and house cats.
“The decline of the population is probably due to climate change and human habitation nearby” = “we haven’t a bull’s notion why the population is in decline”