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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Pikas in high places have a winter-time treat: yak poo

Snacks of faeces help the pocket-sized mammals survive the cold and wind atop a vast plateau that abuts the Himalayas.
Two plateau pikas 'kissing' on grass

Plateau pikas ‘kiss’ during the growing season, when their metabolic rates are much higher than during the winter. Credit: Zhou Jinshuai/Xinhua/Alamy

To survive the harsh winters of their high-altitude home, a fluffball-like animal called the pika becomes strategically lazy — and gorges on yak dung.

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Nature 595, 629 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01978-w

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