The genus name Ochotona stems from the Mongolian word for pikas, ochodona. The species name princeps comes from the Latin word for chief, referring to the Chipewyan Indian name for the pika: “little ...

The American pika — a small, herbivorous, conspicuously cute mammal related to rabbits and hares — is adapted to the cold climate in high-elevation boulder fields and alpine meadows in the mountains ...