The Chinese government has classified this animal as a “pest”, and has been actively attempting to exterminate the entire Pika population since 1958. It was in 1958 that the Chinese government gave themselves the authority to poison the Pika populations using large amounts of zinc phosphate. In the past 40-50 years, government officials poisoned nearly 360,000 square km of land, according to the Independent: tinyurl.com/o6fzgad
Now, with the population dwindling, the government has recently funneled another $35 million into Pika extermination programs, which are said to poison another 110,000 square km of land. The government claims that the animal is a pest because they are said to destroy the areas that they inhabit. However, based on a recent study it is said that pikas are a keystone species for biodiversity and that their burrowing activity provides a critical ecosystem service by increasing the infiltration rate of water, hence reducing overland flow. It is demonstrated that poisoning plateau pikas significantly reduces infiltration rate of water across the QTP creating the potential for watershed-level impacts. The results show the importance of burrowing mammals as ecosystem engineers, particularly with regard to their influence on hydrological functioning. (tinyurl.com/o52on3l)
Source: tinyurl.com/pnbl4e4
Let us show the Chinese Government that they are wrong by singing this petition and putting pressure on the people responsible for this cruel and unnecessary decision.
