Science Moab: How do mountain goats and pikas interact? 

Science Moab talks with Mallory Sandoval Lambert 

During the month of October, Science Moab is producing a new show each week featuring scientists that have been recipients of the Canyonlands Natural History Association Discovery Pool grants for 2023. 

Mallory Sandoval Lambert, a PhD candidate at Utah State University, is studying ecological interactions between pikas, a small, rabbit-like alpine mammal, and mountain goats. The two mammals overlap in the La Sal mountains, where Lambert is studying them. Pikas are native to the area; goats were introduced to the La Sals in 2013 and 2014. 

Science Moab: What is the overall goal of your research?

Lambert: We know that these two animals overlap in territory in Alaska, parts of Canada, and parts of the United States, but we don’t know how they interact or how they don’t interact in those areas. I think it’s an interesting question because no one has looked at it. 

The second explanation of why it’s important is that we do have these mountain goat transplants that are happening throughout the state of Utah. I think seeing how they interact can help us plan these transplants in the future. So if we know, for example, that evidence shows that there may be competition between mountain goats and American pikas, then maybe mountain goats should be transplanted in areas where pikas don’t currently exist. 

The other possibility, which I think is interesting, is that mountain goats and pikas could facilitate the existence of one another. This is something that we see in Africa among large and small bodied herbivores. If we are seeing evidence of facilitation, maybe we can transplant these mountain goats in areas where pika populations are declining—it could be a way to help conserve both species.

Science Moab: How does your research work? 

Lambert: For the pikas, I’m going out and collecting behavioral data to tie into the mountain goats space use. Part of this behavioral data is getting a fine scale image of how the pikas use the talus edge habitat. We walk up there very early in the morning, we sit down, and someone has binoculars, and the other person has a tablet. We watch as these pikas run out from the talus, or rocky slope. They use the talus to escape predation and to escape extreme temperatures and so they have to run out of that safety to go forage and collect hay for their winter hay piles. 

The data we’re collecting is the distance that they run from the talus edge out to a spot in the vegetated strip next to the talus, and basically just getting those measurements, which will then be incorporated into this mountain goat space use.

Science Moab: What are some of the challenges in collecting this data?

Lambert: One challenge of this chapter of my project is being able to sort of digitize these talus slopes so that they can be used in this analysis. I have 10 grazing enclosure sites set up across the north group of the La Sal mountains: at each of the sites, we have two camera traps deployed each summer to track visitation by pikas and mountain goats. I was really happy and excited to see that we got quite a lot of data on these camera traps of mountain goats and pikas using these areas this summer.

We know that both animals are using these spaces, we still just don’t know to what extent. The analysis that I’ll do is called the “resource selection function.” It compares data collected from a mountain goat’s GPS collar to available resource points on the landscape. In doing that, we’re looking at all these different habitats, and whether or not the goat is preferring one area over another. The final step in this analysis is to digitize the talus slope. 

Science Moab:  Do pikas hibernate? What will happen to your research in the winter?

Lambert: That’s a fun question. The pika is a really interesting creature. In the summer, they’re active and they actively feed, but they also spend a lot of their time running out and collecting food for the winter, which they hide under rocks. It’s so amazing the amount of vegetation that a tiny animal like that collects.

In the winter, pikas do not hibernate—they sit underneath the snow and they eat these plants. They actually select a variation of toxic plants, because as the toxins degrade throughout the winter, they preserve the plants, then the pikas can still eat them. So they’re pretty smart. Typically when animals compete it’s when resources are limited, which is the winter season in this case. Since pikas collect their winter food in the summer, they actually remove themselves from competing during the resource-limited winter. 

​​Science Moab is a nonprofit dedicated to engaging community members and visitors with the science happening in Southeast Utah and the Colorado Plateau. To learn more and listen to the rest of this interview, visit www.sciencemoab.org/radio.