Plague warning! Catching pikas and touching groundhogs, is that a risk to your life?

Summer vacation is here, and more people are traveling to the northwest. But on social platforms, many people have started posting photos of themselves holding pikas and feeding marmots. It's cute, but it's really dangerous - these behaviors are not only unfriendly to wild animals, but also risk people getting infected with the plague!

Screenshots from Xiaohongshu, these are all undesirable behaviors!

Who is this cute creature you saw on the Northwest Prairie?

It is not difficult to see pikas in the Northwest grasslands. There are more than 30 species of pikas in the world, and most of them (at least 23 species) are distributed in China. The most common one is the plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae), in addition to the red-eared pika (O. erythrotis), the western Sichuan pika (O. gloveri), and so on.

The black lips of the plateau pika are very conspicuous, so it is also called Black-lipped Pika in English｜mountainhome / inaturalist

The pika is 15 to 30 centimeters long, about the size of a palm . It has short limbs, round ears, and a squirrel-like appearance, but it has no tail.

Swipe right to help plateau pikas survive the winter｜Kunsang / Wikimedia Commons, Tim Melling / Flikr

Both the Ochotonidae and the Leporidae belong to the order Lagomorpha , which means that the Ochotona is a rabbit , not a rat. In order to survive the winter, the plateau Ochotona will also eat yak poop! (They also eat it in other seasons)

"Oops! Looks like I was caught eating shit..."｜PNAS

The other protagonist is the rat - the marmot belongs to the family Sciuridae, and belongs to the order Rodentia along with hamsters, capybaras, porcupines, etc. As early as a few years ago, the emoticon package of the groundhog roaring became popular on the Internet.

The one that became popular was the gray-white marmot, and the "ah——" was dubbed later.

There are four species of marmots in China , of which the Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) is the most widespread, mainly living in the alpine meadows of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This area belonged to Tubo in ancient times, so the word "marmot" in China may be a homonym of "Tubo rat". In addition, there are the gray marmot (M. baibacina) and long-tailed marmot (M. caudata) distributed in Xinjiang, and the Mongolian marmot (M. sibirica) mostly distributed in the Mongolian grasslands.

The yellow color of dead grass is the protective color of the Himalayan marmot｜TuChong Creative

Marmots and pikas are distributed on the grasslands in western China. They look a bit similar, but they are actually very easy to distinguish. Marmots are much larger than palm-sized pikas. Himalayan marmots can grow to half a meter long and weigh more than ten kilograms, which is the size of a medium-sized dog. They have fat faces and small ears, and their expressions look stupid; because they live in high-altitude cold areas, they have thick fur and fat on their bodies, becoming bloated and obese. In addition, marmots have fluffy tails, which are generally about one-third of their body.

Let me see if spring has come? | Tuchong Creative

Close contact? Very dangerous!

However, although they are cute, these close contacts with marmots and pikas on the Internet are actually very dangerous and there is a risk of contracting the plague .

Plague is a highly contagious disease caused by Yersinia pestis , with clinical manifestations such as high fever, swollen and painful lymph nodes, bleeding tendency, and lung inflammation. If left untreated, the mortality rate is as high as 30% to 60%, and it is a Class A managed infectious disease in China. Historically, plague was a pandemic with a high mortality rate. It was called the "Black Death" in the 14th century and caused the deaths of about 50 million people in Europe.

Plague mask and tools for disinfecting letters | Theodor Weyl / Wikimedia commons

The plague bacillus first infects fleas and is spread between various animals and humans through fleas. Wild rodents are the favorite hosts of the plague bacillus .

This plague patient has swollen and ruptured inguinal lymph nodes | CDC

Among the 12 natural plague foci in China, the distribution area of ​​the Himalayan marmot is the most active plague foci and one of the areas with the most severe plague epidemics among animals and humans in China. The plague bacteria here are very toxic, and more than half of the clinical cases are pneumonic plague, which can be transmitted through droplets. Since the Himalayan marmot foci were confirmed in 1954, human plague has occurred and spread almost every year in the following half century, with an average mortality rate of more than half .

The main vectors of plague transmission between marmots are several types of fleas, and there are many ways of transmission from marmots to humans. More than half of them are active contact, including hunting and eating ; one-fifth are flea bites , including living with marmots, kissing and touching, etc.; and some are contact with other animals infected with plague, such as sheep, dogs, rabbits, etc. For example, the pneumonic plague in Xinghai County, Qinghai in 2009 was transmitted by sick dogs - even indirect contact can cause plague infection . Do you still want to take a close photo with a marmot?

Groundhog Day in Pongasutawney, USA in 2013. If you encounter a groundhog in the wild, it is highly recommended not to hug it.｜Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia Commons

As for pikas, although they are not the main source of plague, as neighbors of marmots, they may also become hosts of the plague bacteria.

In China, many marmot habitats also have plateau pikas, and their burrows are sometimes interconnected , so pikas and marmots visit each other, creating conditions for fleas to change hosts. In 1996, in Yushu County, Qinghai, a teenager and a child contracted bubonic plague due to frequent contact with pikas.

What bad intentions can a pika have? | Tuchong Creative

Don't think that the plague has been gone for a long time . In July 2022, a case of plague was confirmed in Ningxia. Fortunately, it was properly controlled and did not cause large-scale spread. Since 2019 alone, 11 cases of plague have been confirmed in China, with a total of 4 deaths. In response to tourists catching pikas and marmots, the Haibei Prefecture Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Qinghai Province also issued a reminder: " Wild animals such as pikas and marmots are at risk of spreading Class A infectious diseases such as plague. Contact and feeding are prohibited ."

Even if you don’t get sick, there are other risks.

In addition to plague, there are many dangers of contact with wild animals that may be overlooked.

Acts of closely watching and touching wild animals in the name of "cuteness" not only expose us to the risk of disease transmission , but also disturb the animals and cause them to have stressful behaviors , causing unnecessary harm to both them and humans.

Please keep your distance from me, thank you! | Tuchong Creative

People who take photos with pikas in their hands just think that the pikas are making the scissors hand gesture cutely, but they don't realize that this is likely to scare the pikas, and severe fright may even cause the pikas to die from stress .

Feeding is harmful to both animals and humans . On the one hand, the "delicious" food fed by humans is often not suitable for animals, and snacks high in oil, salt, and sugar may make them sick. On the other hand, feeding will make animals feel that they can get food from humans, so they get used to hanging around humans and relying on humans. Once they show that they are not afraid of humans, humans may think that they are their own animals and get closer...

Even domestic pets can bite people suddenly, not to mention wild animals. It is difficult for us to predict the attack signals released by animals - what's worse is that many wild animals will not give you any signals before launching an attack. Once the distance between wild animals and humans is infinitely close, the risk of mutual injury will increase infinitely.

Mongolian marmot: Don’t rub me no matter how much you like me! | Stéphane Magnenat/Wikimedia Commons

Animals don't need to be hugged, and they don't want to be caught and photographed. Respect from a distance is good for both parties .

Author: hannah, Frost Moth, Winged Wolf Elang

Editor: Ziran Niang, Wan Wan, Mai Mai

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)