{"id":34921,"date":"2025-01-16T14:48:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T19:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.endangered.org\/?post_type=project&p=34921"},"modified":"2025-01-16T14:51:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T19:51:41","slug":"saving-washingtons-pygmy-rabbits","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/www.endangered.org\/projects\/saving-washingtons-pygmy-rabbits\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Washington’s Pygmy Rabbits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By John Rosapepe, Pacific Northwest Representative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Endangered Species Coalition in the Pacific Northwest not only works on well known species in need of protection such as the gray wolf, Southern Resident Killer Whales, grizzly bears, and salmon, but also ones that you may not see when you are in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I testified at last December\u2019s Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission about keeping Washington\u2019s Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit protected as a state endangered species and to continue funding its recovery efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These rabbits are small, they can fit in the cup of your hands, inhabit sage brush, burrow in the earth, and are a distinct population from other pygmy rabbits found in Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due primarily to habitat loss, along with predation, and disease there were only sixteen of these rabbits in the wild by 2001. They were taken into captivity for a breeding program. Over the next fifteen years they were released in three semi enclosed sagebrush enclosures in Central Washington. The population expanded to over 300 animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with global warming and increased wildfires and their severity in Central Washington one of the recovery areas habitat and rabbits were destroyed by wildfire. Along with a virus and climate change the population dropped to approximately 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is hope as scientists now have a vaccine for the virus and are also more aware of fire dangers. The response to these threats include spreading out recovery sites from each other and having irrigation systems to help protect rabbits in breeding pens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission kept the protections of the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit and its continued support for the recovery program recognizing that the biodiversity of species is essential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":34922,"template":"","categories":[55],"class_list":["post-34921","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wildlife","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSaving Washington's Pygmy Rabbits - Endangered Species Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.endangered.org\/projects\/saving-washingtons-pygmy-rabbits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saving Washington's Pygmy Rabbits - Endangered Species Coalition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By John Rosapepe, Pacific Northwest Representative The Endangered Species Coalition in the Pacific Northwest not only works on well known species in need of protection such as the gray wolf, Southern Resident Killer Whales, grizzly bears, and salmon, but also…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.endangered.org\/projects\/saving-washingtons-pygmy-rabbits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Endangered Species Coalition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-16T19:51:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.endangered.org\/assets\/uploads\/2025\/01\/pygmy_rabbit_r_dixon_and_h_ulmschneider_usfws_ruby_lake_nwr_nevada.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"289\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.endangered.org\/projects\/saving-washingtons-pygmy-rabbits\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.endangered.org\/projects\/saving-washingtons-pygmy-rabbits\/\",\"name\":\"Saving Washington's Pygmy Rabbits - 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