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The Nubra pika ( Ochotona nubrica) (c=奴布拉鼠兔) is a species of pika found in Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. It is a small Diurnality mammal with a fur coat that changes color across seasons and regions, ranging from gray to brownish red. It has blackish ears with a distinctive pale patch on the back, a very small tail, and a flat, narrow skull. It is closely related to the plateau pika and Sikkim pika, and is widely distributed across the Himalayas. It is among the burrowing species of pika, and eats a variety of plants. This pika's range overlaps with that of the Sikkim pika, one subspecies of Moupin pika, and the large-eared pika. One subspecies of the Nubra pika is restricted to part of the southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Nubra pika's taxonomy has changed several times over the period from its first description in 1922 up until 1992. It is named for the Nubra valley in Ladakh, India where it was first found. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Chinese authorities list it as a least-concern species; its remoteness makes it hard to study and assess, but also makes it less likely to be threatened by human activity.
It was later considered to be a synonym of various species in the pika genus, from the steppe pika ( O. pusilla) in 1951, to Royle's pika in 1978, and finally to the Moupin pika ( O. thibetana) in 1986 before being recognized as a distinct species once again by separate studies in 1990 and 1992. The nineteenth-century taxon Lagomys hodgsoni, named in 1841 by English zoologist Edward Blyth, was clarified to be a synonym of O. nubrica in 1993 by the American mammalogist Robert S. Hoffmann. It had previously been a synonym of O. roylei.
Currently, the Nubra pika is placed in the subgenus Ochotona. Its closest relative within the pikas may be the plateau pika ( O. curzoniae), based on mitochondrial DNA evidence. The plateau pika apparently hybridizes with the Nubra pika, which has led to mixing in their Haplotype (lines of descent based on specific Allele), though the two species have distinct physical traits. These two species likely diverged from their closest relatives . Later studies place the plateau pika in a sister clade to all other pikas, and point to a closer relationship between the Nubra pika and the Sikkim pika ( O. sikimaria), a species once considered to be a subspecies of the Moupin pika that was separated in 2016.
There are two known subspecies of the Nubra pika:
The Nubra pika inhabits shrubland habitats. As a burrowing species, it avoids rocky Scree regions and instead resides in areas with dense vegetation. It may rarely inhabit cliffside regions. Common plants in Nubra pika habitats include common sea buckthorn, saltcedar, willow trees, honeysuckle, and Peashrub. Its habitat and vegetation preferences are shared with Thomas's pika ( O. thomasi), but notably differ from the closely related plateau pika, which resides in less herbaceous regions.
Though it is not reported to form colonies, it is social, living in defined family units, a behavior found in other burrowing pika species. Little is known regarding the species' reproduction, but juveniles have been found in June, July and August, and individuals in the sub-adult stage have been seen from August to early October. The species is Diurnality, and is often seen only in moments when it dashes between places of cover under vegetation. Its presence is marked by its burrows, trails gnawed through vegetation, and latrines (piles of dry pellets). It is affected by the flea Geusibia triangularis, a member of the genus Geusibia that specifically parasitizes pikas.
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