COLUMBIA BASIN

PYGMY RABBIT

(Brachylagus idahoensis)

COLUMBIA PYGMY RABBIT A perfect little rabbit The smallest in north in America An adult fit easily in to the palm of the

hand The color of their fur ranges from light

gray-dark gray, light brown- dark brown.

They live on sagebrush in arid western Us rangelands.

They are specialist feeders, they need the tall, dense sage brush plants for protection as well as food.

They also need the soil that is deep enough for the construction of a burrow system.

The Columbia basin pygmy rabbit has been isolated from other pygmy rabbits for thousands of years, and has become genetically different from those found in Idaho, Oregon and California.

WHY IS IT ENDANGERED?

In 1990 the no of pygmy rabbits start to decline due to the:Loss of habitatFragmentation of the remaining

sagebrush ecosystems(the land was taken over by farms and urban development).

In 1999, Dr Rod Sayler and his colleague, Dr. Lisa Shipley starts to work on saving the fewer individuals of pigmy rabbits remaining(less than thirty individuals).

Dr. Lisa and Dr. Rod started a captive breeding program. Sixteen rabbits were captured and sent

for captive breeding. First, they experimented the captive

breeding program on the non-endangered Idaho pygmy rabbits before trying with the precious Columbia population.

While their observations,Dr. rod and Lisa discovered that, unlike Idaho rabbits, the Columbian individuals had much lower reproductive success:Fewer kits per female.Lower kit growth rates.Some bone deformities.

So, the recovery team regretfully came to the conclusion that the only way to improve the reproductive fitness and thus save the last Columbia basin pygmy rabbits was to allow some of them to mate with Idaho rabbits.

On march 13, 2007, the first twenty captive bred Columbia Basin rabbits were released in eastern Washington.

However there were unexpected problems;Almost half the rabbits dispersed from he

release area, in search of new homes or mates.

in addition, losses to predators(coyotes, raptors) were high.

As a result, the recovery team were pretty discouraged, but something amazing happened that restored a little bit of hope.

They figured out that the two remaining pygmy rabbits will breed in the wild in their first breeding season.

It is true that they hoped for greater success, but at least they have learned a lot that will help them plan better in the future.

REFERENCES: beachcombdesigns.blogspot. comscientificamerican.com