WHISKERS ALL AQUIVER

Climate change threatens creatures that have weathered extreme environments for thousands of years

- SABUJ BHATTACHARYYA

Remember Pikachu—the beloved companion of Ash Ketchum in the television animation series Pokémon? A real-life analogue exists, though it is far less famous and far more vulnerable. High in the Himalayas, this small, round, tawny creature, barely the size of a tennis ball, goes about its life unaware that scientists now view it as a sentinel of climate change.

This is the Royle's pika (