Feds turn down pika protection

SALT LAKE CITY – Climate change might be wiping out some populations of the American pika, a relative of the rabbit, but not enough to warrant legal protection for the tiny mountain-dwelling animal, according to a decision released Thursday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service posted its decision on a Web site stating that while some pika populations in the West are declining, others are not, so it would not extend Endangered Species Act protections.

The pika would have been the first animal in the continental United States listed because of the effects of global warming.

Although potentially vulnerable to climate change in some parts of its range, pikas will have enough high-elevation habitat to prevent extinction, the agency said.

Greg Loarie, an Earthjustice attorney who worked on lawsuits pressing for protections for the pika, said science clearly points toward dramatic reductions in populations in the coming decades because of warming temperatures.