Ochotona yarlungensis

The Yarlung Zangbo pika belongs to the subgenus Ochotona and is a new species discovered by Liu Shaoying et al. (2016). Its distribution area is very narrow. It lives in relatively dry river valley shrubs with many gravels. There is almost no ecological research. In terms of phylogeny, it has a close relationship with the Bulaq pika and the black-lipped pika.

It is endemic to China and is only distributed along the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet.

The individual is small, with a body length of no more than 150mm. Its appearance is very similar to that of the Intercranial Pika, but there is a very narrow dark gray circle on the edge of the lip, and the outer part of the dark gray circle is grayish white. The bottom of the hind foot is densely furred, and the hair on the toe tip is long and thick, with the toe pads and claws hidden in the hair. The cranial face is relatively protruding, but relatively flat compared to the black-lipped pika. The fur is dark brown, not the light yellow-white of the black-lipped pika. On the skull, there is no oval foramen in the frontal bone, and the incisor foramen and palatine foramen are merged into one large hole.