 They can stand briefly on their hind legs while sparring or gathering food and can climb in an ungainly fashion in seedling conifers such as the Scots pine ("Pinus sylvestris").The northern pika is herbivorous and eats a variety of plant material such as grasses, twigs, needles, stems and leaves.The food is gathered and then mostly carried back, using the mouth alone, to one of a number of eating points near an entrances to the burrow.