Their head is rather big, and their tails are tiny, hidden by fur. They have 26 teeth, including six incisors, the upper ones being grooved in the front, ten premolars, and ten molars. The pikas tend to live in large groups, working hard during the growing seasons to collect and store food for the winter, as they are not known to hibernate. During the coldest months, the animal only emerges from its burrow to feed from its store of food. The pikas reproductive period usually runs from spring until the first snow.
Most female pikas have a litter of four.
The babies from this litter are ready to live on their own in the group within two weeks, and usually the mother pika goes on to have at least one and possibly two more litters before the first snowfall. The Asian pika, or Ochotona pusilla, live in the steppes and is the only species among all the Ochodonitae which is native to the European continent. Their fur is dark gray, with black ears edged in white. Though the Asian pika has a short, stubby body, they can be very graceful. After gathering its food for the winter months, the pika stores them in a haystack formation they make in rocky ravines or depressions in the ground.