The pygmy rabbit, at less than a pound, is the smallest rabbit in North America.
credit:
Oregon Zoo
Biologists say the endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit is breeding for the first time in a decade in its native habitat.
Wildlife managers are re-introducing the tiny rabbit on a wildlife reserve near Ephrata in Central Washington. They’ve confirmed several litters in a six-acre enclosure there.
Michael Ellig of the Oregon Zoo bred some of the parents that were recently released into the wild. He says baby pygmy rabbits –- or kits -– have a lot working against them. They’re at the bottom of the food chain. And mother pygmy rabbits are not known for their attentiveness.
“They give birth in a burrow and then they backfill that burrow. So they don’t spend any real time with the kits, Ellig explains. “Once a day, usually in the evening, they’ll go and uncover that burrow and pull the kits out through the entrance, nurse them, push them back down, and seal it up, and then they go off to different burrows.”
Until the re-introduction this spring, there were no Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits known to be left in the wild.
A previous re-introduction effort failed after the rabbits fell prey to predators.
(This was first reported for the Northwest News Network.)
Congrats to David James for his winning submission, 'Annabella smelling the Balsam.'
Share your experiences as part of EarthFix's Public Insight Network.
Oregon/Washington: Is there buzz in your community about coal trains or new export terminals?
Join our Public Insight Network!
EarthFix is a public media project of Oregon Public Broadcasting and Boise State Public Radio, Idaho Public Television, KCTS 9 Seattle, KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, Northwest Public Radio and Television, Southern Oregon Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
