Ili Pika
A living teddy bear that's retreating upward — and running out of mountain
No confirmed photograph exists
Location
Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China
Overview
The Ili pika is a small, round-faced relative of the rabbit, about 20 cm long and 250 g, that lives in boulder fields above 4,000 metres in China's Tianshan range. It was discovered in 1983 by Chinese wildlife surveyor Li Weidong, who dedicated decades to tracking it. Since its discovery, the population has fallen by an estimated 70% — pushed higher and higher by warming temperatures. The last confirmed photograph was taken by Li himself in 2014. Since then, despite targeted surveys, none have been found.
Why haven't we found it?
The Tianshan range is vast, cold, and genuinely difficult to work in. Boulder fields at 4,000m are not places people casually walk through. Cameras and traps suited to small mammals at extreme altitude are hard to deploy and recover. The pika may still exist in pockets of suitable terrain that simply haven't been checked — or it may have finally run out of mountain.
Reasons to keep looking
- 1
Li Weidong and his team have continued systematic surveys. The absence of detection is not the same as absence.
- 2
No carcasses or definitive evidence of extinction have been found. The species vanishing from survey sites is consistent with both very low population density and local extinction.
- 3
Climate models suggest some boulder habitat above 4,500m may remain thermally suitable through 2040, providing a narrow window for survival.
Things worth knowing
- 1
Li Weidong spent his personal savings funding surveys after failing to secure government support — this animal became his life's work.
- 2
Ili pikas do not hibernate. They spend summer cutting and drying grass to cache under boulders, subsisting on it through brutal Tianshan winters.
- 3
They can tolerate body temperatures near freezing — but warming summers, not cold winters, are what's killing them, because their food plants die off at lower altitudes.
- 4
Only about 2,000 individuals were estimated at the time of discovery. The 70% decline puts current numbers potentially below 600.
- 5
It was formally named Ochotona iliensis after the Ili River valley. Li Weidong called his 2014 photo 'a gift from the animals' — it remained the last known image for years.