Boulder bunny's plight highlights threat to ski industry

Two lawsuits filed this week to protect a simple mountain rabbit will serve to highlight the damage being done to alpine environments and the ski industry by climate change, according to leading conservationists.

Environmental law firm Earthjustice issued lawsuits to both the federal and California state governments, to force inclusion of the pika, or "alpine boulder bunny" , on their lists of endangered species.

The pika, found in mountainous areas of Nevada and Colorado, is under significant threat, according to the lawsuits filed on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity.

The species is particularly significant, according to Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke professor of conservation ecology at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, as it highlights the extent to which global warming is now affecting alpine environments.

Climate change has previously affected mainly lower-lying areas, said Pimm, an expert on species extinction, while mountain environments have hitherto remained relatively pristine. "But now the very places that have been untouched are getting hammered the hardest," he said. "This means that the snows are getting fewer and higher. Ski resorts in Carolina do not get as much snow any more."

The pika's plight is a demonstrable sign that climate change is hitting alpine environments, he continued: "Put a name to that, a face to that, and that is what the pika is. It's the face of global warming in the places that were not affected before."

The California lawsuit challenges the California Fish and Game Commission's denial of a petition to include the pika on the endangered species list in April. The federal suit protests the US Fish and Wildlife Services' lack of response to a petition filed last October.

"The pika will be one of the first to go," said Greg Loarie, attorney at Earthjustice, which has stated that more than a third of the pika in the mountains of Nevada and Oregon have disappeared in the past century. "It is the global warming canary in the coalmine."