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Dong Lei/NaturePL.com (plateau pika)
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Pika Chew
Dong Lei/NaturePL.com
Does this fuzzy little creature make you say “Aw”? Well, it might also have you saying “Ew”! The rabbit-like animal is called a plateau pika, and it has a pretty gross eating habit. In a recent study, scientists discovered that these pikas eat yak poop to survive!
Plateau pikas are native to the Tibetan Plateau, a high, flat area of land in Asia. Winters there can be harsh, with temperatures dipping way below freezing. These frigid conditions make it tough for pikas to find food and water to survive. And unlike some other animals, they don’t store food and hibernate for the winter. They don’t migrate, or move, to places with warmer weather either.
XI ZHINONG/NaturePL.com
A yak
Finding food is not as big a problem for yaks. The big animals use their strong horns to break through ice and eat the grass below. Not only does this nourish the yaks, but it feeds pikas as well. They eat the yaks’ waste, which contains nutrients. It may seem yucky, but in the wild, animals do whatever they need to do to survive!