Don't crawl under a rock, look there for pikas! Engaging the public in climate-change science through surveys of a rock rabbit, the American pika

Engaging humanity in the issue of climate change is one of today’s grand challenges. One promising avenue for increasing engagement is public participation in research projects that document local environmental changes. The... [ view full abstract ]

Engaging humanity in the issue of climate change is one of today’s grand challenges. One promising avenue for increasing engagement is public participation in research projects that document local environmental changes. The American pika (Ochotona princeps) is an ideal focus for citizen science with respect to climate change. Pikas are small mountain mammals that are charismatic, easy to identify, and accessible in popular recreation areas. These traits, paired with concerns about recent pika population declines, have made pikas popular with citizen science efforts throughout the western United States. More than ten formal projects across seven states are training citizen scientists to monitor the status of pikas. These include several programs specifically for K-12 students. Here, we summarize the scientific insights and educational impacts of public participation in pika research. A comparison of pika detections between volunteers and professional field crews suggests that citizen-collected data are reliable and can be used to identify changes in pika distribution and density. Public observations have since led to high-impact discoveries about the biology of the species, and surveys suggest that participation also helps volunteers appreciate the causes and consequences of climate change. However, data synthesis across projects has proven challenging, particularly with respect to reconciling disparate survey protocols. Overall, our analysis suggests that pika research can be a powerful platform for public engagement in climate change, but future attention is needed to balance educational, scientific and management objectives in project design.