[Objectives] Animals which inhabit in plateau are facing with the unique environmental challenges such as low temperature and hypoxia. As the rising of altitude, these challenges may increase. The metabolism of animals plays an important role during long-term physiological adaptation. With the changes of altitude, the metabolic rates of many animals vary synchronously to adapt to different habitats. However, it is still unclear whether the animal thermal neutral zone (TNZ) changes with altitude. In this study, we took Plateau Pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) as studying objects to test how their thermal neutral zone range changes at different altitudes. [Methods] We examined the physiological traits of Plateau Pikas by measuring body temperature (Tb), metabolic rate and thermal conductance (C). Resting metabolic rates (RMR) were measured using 8-channel FMS portable respiratory metabolic system (Sable Systems International, Henderson, NV, USA). Biochemical incubators (LHR-250, Shanghai Yiheng Scientific Instruments Co., LTD.) was used to adjust the chambers’ temperature (Ta) within ± 0.5 ℃. Experiments were conducted under 15.0 ℃, 20.0 ℃, 22.5 ℃, 24.0 ℃, 25.0 ℃, 26.0 ℃, 27.5 ℃, 29.0 ℃, 30.0 ℃, 31.5 ℃, 32.5 ℃ and 35.0 ℃, respectively. The differences of metabolic rate among each group at ambient temperature were analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA, the differences between resting metabolic rate and body weight at different altitudes were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. [Results] The results showed that the body mass of Plateau Pikas at high or medium altitude region was significantly higher than that of low altitude region (Fig. 3). The body temperature of Plateau Pikas at three altitude regions continuously increased with the increase of ambient temperature (Fig. 1). Compared with high and medium altitude regions, Plateau Pikas at low altitude region had a lower metabolic rate (Fig. 3). The thermal neutral zone of Plateau Pikas was 24﹣30 ℃ at both high and middle altitude regions, while it was 25﹣30 ℃ at low altitude region (Fig. 2). The thermal conductance of Plateau Pikas at three altitude regions continuously increased with the increase of ambient temperature (Fig. 4). The thermal conductance was the lowest and stable when the ambient temperature was between 15 ℃ and 29 ℃, the mean thermal conductance values at high, middle and low altitude were (0.18 ± 0.09) ml/ (g·h·℃), (0.19 ± 0.09) ml/ (g·h·℃) and (0.19 ± 0.08) ml/ (g·h·℃), respectively. [Conclusion] This study found that as the rising of altitude, both metabolic rate and thermal neutral zone of Plateau Pikas increased to adapt to colder environment at higher altitude regions. These results provide basic information for understanding the physiological adaptation of animals at different altitude regions.