The black pika or silver pika (''Ochotona nigritia'') is a species of mammal in the family Ochotonidae. It was thought to be common to the

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

Province of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

where it was first discovered in 2000, it is only known from four specimens. The validity of the species has been questioned, with some studies suggesting that the known specimens represent

melanistic The term melanism refers to black pigment and is derived from the gr, μελανός. Melanism is the increased development of the dark-colored pigment melanin in the skin or hair. Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pi ...

individuals of

Forrest's pika The Forrest's pika (''Ochotona forresti'') is a species of mammal in the pika family, Ochotonidae. It is found in Bhutan, China, India, and Myanmar. The summer dorsal pelage and ventral pelage are dark rufous or blackish brown, and the winter d ...

(''Ochotona forresti''). Subsequently, in 2011, a

WWF-India World Wide Fund for Nature-India, better known by its abbreviation, WWF-India, has been devotedly working to protect and secure natural heritage and ecology for more than 50 years. It has an autonomous office, with the Secretariat based in New Del ...

team on an expedition to

West Kameng West Kameng (pronounced ) is a district of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It accounts for 8.86% of the total area of the state. The name is derived from the Kameng river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, that flows through the district ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

reported sighting two black pikas at an altitude of 13,000 ft in the Thembang Bapu community-conserved forest area. It is rarely found, one of the six pika species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to central

, with no true population studies.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Mammals described in 2000 Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{lagomorph-stub