22 June 2024

A special installment of: Identifying Rodents and Pikas with Tomeslice

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Y29sdW1uPSIzMDM0ZmJlODg2YzExMDU0ZTk1YjQ2YjA5ZDNlNDExMiJdIHsgZGlzcGxheTogZmxleDsgfSAgIH0g

Hi everyone,

On my recent trip to Sichuan in China, we came across a few different rodents and Pikas, some of which were positively identified, and others which I would like help in identifying, if possible.

Let’s start with rodents:

1. First one: small mouse-sized rodent from Labahe Nature Reserve. I have a video of it, but it’s too large to upload so I uploaded it to my YouTube channel which I never use anymore..:

You can easily skip the first 10 seconds. The best candidate for this one is Confucius niviventer, which supposed to be common in the area according to our guide. He didn’t see this specific individual so he never confirmed it 100%.

2. Same with the next one. Another individual on the same night, also at the roadside. Might easily be the same species:

And also a video of this one:

OK, 3d species: A slightly larger rodent on the road, also at Labahe. Best candidate for this one according to Sid: Chevrier’s field mouse:

And also a video for this one:

4. Final rodent: From Tangjiahe, also on the road. I only have 1 picture of it and no videos…

Ok, and now a few Pikas for the soul:

So this one is the regular Plateau Pika, or Black-lipped Pika, for reference:

And nohter reference: The following is “known” to be a Moupin pika, up at the top of the higher cable car station in Labahe:

Ok, and now the 3 mysterious ones. Are the all Gansu Pikas? Thomas’s Pikas? 2-3 different species?

5. Let’s start with this one. These are 2 individual pikas found in the slightly lower elevations of the road from Zasage Scenic Spot (Rouergai), but in lower elevation, as you descend from the plateau grasslands through the alpine forest, and then into this kind of rural area that’s still forested on 1 side of the road. The ecology of these guys is quite different than the plateau pikas, as they’re more in shrubbery and not in open fields, and are shier (also lower elevation, I believe). They’re not great photos (is an understatement) but they’re the best I have of this species and nobody else seems to have gotten pictures of pikas there:

6. The next one is from Baxi forest, which is in similar elevation as the previous one (I believe) but 3-4 hours away, in a forest along a road that runs down the other side of the Ruoergai grasslands area. This picture is by Oleg Rozhko. I also have some pictures but they’re all much worse. I found a picture of a pika from this forest on Flickr by a guy I follow, who initially called this Gansu pika, and then swithced to Thomas’s pika, based on some research he conducted:

7. The last species for today, is also the most challenging. It’s a baby pika we found on the road, much, much further down the highway, about a 1/3 of the way from Ruoergai Grasslands in the Tibetan plateau towards tangjiahe which is almost lowlands. This was a good 4 hours from the accommodation on the plateau, and probably an additional 2-3 hours from Baxi forest, along a road that winds up-and-down through the mountains, and eventually leads to a pass from where you constantly go downhill for many miles until reaching Tangjiahe. This was before that mountain pass. It’s hard to know the exact elevation, but the surroundings were sub-alpine-ish forest-ish and meadows. We picked up the pika as it would have been killed for sure, and placed it way downhill from the road near a shrub. It’s hard to believe it survived to see another day, being left alone like that. But one can only hope:

This photo is by Mark Langston, another trip participant who is not on mammalwatching.com. The following 2 are mine:

I’d appreciate any help!

The old legend says that if you help fellow mammalwatchers identify rodents and pikas you get blessed with a special species on your next trip. 😜

Thanks in advance!

Tomer, AKA Tomeslice

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tomeslice

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1 Comment

23 June 2024

tomeslice

Not everyone at once.. !! ;-P
Ok, I just realized that all the pictures were default as “Medium size” and nothing happens when you click on them. I just changed it so that when you click on a picture it takes you to the full-size file, so that you can actually see something 😀

Cheers,
Tomer

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