Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit facts for kids
The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit is a very special and tiny rabbit. It is a type of pygmy rabbit that lives only in one small area. This area is called the Columbia Basin in Washington state. These rabbits are the smallest rabbits in all of North America!
Even though other pygmy rabbits are not in danger, the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit is. The US Fish & Wildlife Service protects them under the Endangered Species Act. Sadly, the last purebred Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit died in 2008. This meant that the original pure family line was gone.
What Makes Them Special?
Pygmy rabbits are unique because they are the only rabbits in North America that dig their own burrows. They also live mostly in areas with lots of sagebrush plants.
In winter, these rabbits eat almost only sagebrush. But in summer, they enjoy a wider variety of plants. Female rabbits can have two to four litters of babies each spring and summer. Each litter usually has about two to six tiny kits.
The number of these rabbits went down for a few reasons. Predators like coyotes hunt them. Also, their homes were lost because of farming and big wildfires.
Helping Them Survive
Unlike most rabbits, the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit did not have many babies. This was true both in the wild and when people tried to breed them. One reason was that the small wild group had a lot of inbreeding.
To help, scientists bred them with pygmy rabbits from Idaho. This helped the breeding efforts become much more successful. For example, in 2009, the Oregon Zoo helped produce 26 baby rabbits. That year, 73 babies were born in all the places working to save them. In 2010, the zoo learned that rabbits bred better when they knew and liked each other. This worked better than just pairing them based on their family tree.
From 2011 to 2014, the efforts to bring the rabbits back were very hopeful. Experts developed ways to breed wild and captive-bred rabbits. They used special protected areas that were like mini-wild homes. This helped increase the number of rabbits for release.
Between 2011 and 2013, biologists moved 109 pygmy rabbits. These rabbits came from Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and Wyoming. They were brought to the breeding areas in Douglas and Grant Counties, along with the remaining captive rabbits. Since 2011, over 1,300 baby rabbits have been born in these special areas.
This success allowed over 1,200 rabbits to be released into the wild. They were set free at the Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area from 2011 to 2014. Because of this great progress, since 2015, pygmy rabbits are also being released into a second recovery area. This new area is on private land at The Nature Conservancy Preserve in Grant County.
Scientists watch the released rabbits very closely. They collect information on how the rabbits breed and use their habitat. They also track how many survive and what causes deaths. This information helps them improve how they reintroduce the rabbits. It also helps them manage the new rabbit populations.
See also
- Pygmy rabbits — (Brachylagus idahoensis)
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered species
