Thursday, May 16, 2019

Rabbit and Pika Coloring Pages


Bunny among the Flowers
(new drawing)

This is a drawing of a baby bunny.  Did you know that rabbits are NOT rodents?  They are in the Order:  Lagomorpha.  There are two Families of Lagomorphs.  One Family is Leporidae and it includes Hares and Rabbits.  The other Family is Ochotonidae and that is the Pikas. The above drawing was done for my granddaughter when we were waiting for my car to get its oil changed at the local Honda dealership.  It is a rather quick drawing for younger kids to color.

I drew this bunny while waitng for our car's oil to change.  I drew it for my granddaughter.


Pikas in the Mountains
(new drawing)

The Pika is a relative of the bunny or rabbit or hare. . . or  bunny rabbit.  the Pika is a small mammal that lives high in the mountains above the tree line.  They live in rock piles and eat plants.  They store up dry plant food in the summer to get through the winter.   This is a drawing of the American Pika.  The Pika in South America lives at incredible altitudes, as high as 20,000 feet or 6,000 meters above sea level.  That is too high for trees or ANY other mammal.  Pikas LOOK like a rodent but again, they are in the Order:  Lagomorpha.  The Pika Family is called Ochotonidae.

I should mention that some species of Pika live in lower elevations and they are the ones that dig burrows.  Thoes pika from Siberia are probably the ones the people of Siberia were aware of.  The word "Pika" comes from the Tungus People of Siberia who were trying to mimic the call of the small mammal.  I guess their call sounds like "pika, pika, pika!"   Pikas are small mammals with very short limbs or short legs and arms.  Pikas have no external tail like most mammals.  That is something they have in common with us humans.  But we could never live at the kind of altitudes where some pikas live.  Pikas are about 6-9 inches or 15-23 cm long.

Although they are primarily herbivores, some pikas store dead birds they find as food fro the winter.  Mostly pikas eat plants.  Some Pikas burrow and live in dens in the earth and other species live in rock piles.  The ones that live in dens in the ground have more babies and I suspect a much warmer home.

The Pika drawing shows the back of one Pika.  This drawing is based on a photo from The
Alpine Tundra site:  https://alpinetundrabiome.weebly.com/the-american-pika.html  I think it is funny how this little guy looks like he has no arms or legs.  Of course he does. 

Pika from Behind with turned Head

The other Pika in the drawing is based on other photos I have seen.  I used to spend more time up in the mountains.  Now being in the higher mountains requires me to have supplementary oxygen so I don't go as often. . . but I must admit that I think I may never have seen a pika in the wild.  They DO live here in the high Utah mountains. 

I am adding below some older drawings of animals from Order:  Lagomorpha.  These are older drawings . . . so they are not found at the bottom of the lists.  To get to the printable drawings you click on the Animals or All Printables buttons up at the top of the page.  Then scroll down to the bottom of the list for the new drawings. 


Bunny under a Bush


Jackalope
(This is a Gaff Taxidermy animal... that is a fake animal made up from parts
of more than one species.  P. T. Barnum was known for displaying things like this.
So, it really is not real...
But, if Jackalopes were real they would be in Order:  Lagomorpha...
so I included this drawing in this post.)


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