Despite their tiny cuddly appearance, American Pikas are among North America's toughest animals. They are super fast, racing with plant materials to their dens for the winter. Pikas are one of the few mammals that can survive their entire lives in alpine terrain, the windswept no-man's-land above tree line. This little one would pop out over the top of a rock and then disappear, only to pop back up a few minutes later! Photographed near the top of Mt Evans, a 14 thousand foot peak in Colorado.