Pygmy rabbit (Columbia Basin population) (Brachylagus idahoensis)

Conservation Threats and Actions Needed

Image

Photo by WDFW

• Fish and wildlife habitat loss or degradation
  • Threat: Habitat fragmentation due to development may hamper recovery efforts.
  • Action Needed: Use landowner incentives, conservation easements, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) Safe Harbor Agreements to protect significant habitats. Coordinate with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and USFWS. Recover species in the Columbia Basin through semi-wild breeding, releases, and translocations while working to recover habitat.
• Resource information collection needs
  • Threat: Causes of the population decline in Washington are unknown, need to monitor status of reintroduced populations closely to determine any potential problems and adjust accordingly.
  • Action Needed: Monitor reintroduced population for potential problems and success, and determine whether recovery actions are effective. Develop survey methods to efficiently detect long-distance dispersers from release site.
• Agriculture side effects
  • Threat: Maintain habitat enrollment in USDA Conservation Reserve Program. These fields are always on deep soil habitat and now have mature sagebrush stands that provide high quality habitat to pygmy rabbits.
  • Action Needed: Smart grazing, fire management, and species population connectivity management programs can be beneficial for wildlife, livestock, and landowners. The department will also continue to engage USDA Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service to encourage landowners to retain habitat in USDA CRP as they provide quality habitat.  

See the Climate vulnerability section for information about the threats posed by climate change to this species. The species faces grave threats from increasing occurrences of wildfire.

Rabbit hemorrhagic disease has emerged as a concern as well. 

Our Conservation Efforts 

Image

Photo by WDFW

The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit population is genetically distinct, considered to have been isolated for 10,000 years or longer from the rest of the pygmy rabbit population. Large-scale loss and fragmentation of shrubsteppe habitat were likely the primary factors contributing to decline, but once the population dropped below a certain threshold, other factors such as environmental events (extreme weather and fire), predation, disease, and inbreeding likely became threats. 

A major recovery effort is underway for this species. In 2001, with as few as 16 pygmy rabbits known to exist in Washington, the WDFW and the USFWS initiated a captive breeding program with the intent of reintroducing rabbits to the wild, but none of the pygmy rabbits from the first release in 2007 survived beyond the first year. Since 2011, over 2,000 pygmy rabbits have been released into the wild on Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area and Chester Butte Wildlife Area in Douglas County and on The Nature Conservancy Preserve in the Beezley Hills in Grant County as a result of collaborative recovery efforts between WDFW, USFWS, the Oregon Zoo, Washington State University, other state wildlife agencies, Northwest Trek, The Nature Conservancy in Washington, and Conservation Northwest. 

Release efforts on Sagebrush Flat occurred from 2011 to 2016 and have established a wild population that was estimated to be nearly 300 adults in 2018 but has declined to under 100 since then. Early release efforts (2015 to 2017) struggled in Beezley Hills due to disease and wildfire but have done well since 2018 with modifications to release efforts and now a wild population is starting to thrive in 2021. Release efforts on Chester Butte occurred from 2018 to 2020 and were beginning to thrive, both expanding across the landscape and in rabbit numbers, but all were lost due to the catastrophic Pearl Hill fire.

The majority of the wild pygmy rabbit populations occur on private lands owned by farmers enrolled in the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program. Biologists continue to closely monitor released pygmy rabbits to collect data on breeding, habitat use, survival, mortalities, and other factors to modify reintroduction techniques and manage the rabbit population.