The American Pika is considered an indicator species for detecting ecological efforts of climate change. Pikas live above the tree line in boulder fields surrounded by meadows on mountain peaks. Although they thrive in colder temperatures, they avoid the summer heat by seeking the cool crevices under the boulders and by remaining inactive during warm periods. Despite the long, cold, snowy winters at high elevations, pikas do not hibernate. Pikas spend summers industriously gathering flowers and grasses and store them in "haypiles" for food to sustain them through the long winters. These "boulder bunnies," which weigh only a third of a pound, must collect more than 60 pounds of vegetation to survive the winter.

Global warming threatens pikas by shortening the time available for them to gather food, changing the types of plants that grow where they live, reducing the insulating snowpack during winter, and, most directly, causing the animals to die from overheating.

The reasons the American Pika was selected as the logo for Pika Environmental, LLC are several fold:

• Admiration for its ability to survive in a harsh environment by working diligently and industriously
• A sense of wonder at its knowledge of the various alpine food sources that will ensure its sustenance during the long winter
• Amusement at its fierce (although rather high-pitched and squeaky) warning cry
• In lasting tribute to its symbolic role as the only species currently being considered for endangered status by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service exclusively as a result of global warming