Feds turn down bid to list pygmy rabbit
PORTLAND – Federal officials have turned down a request to put North America’s smallest rabbit under federal protection.
Organizations, including the Oregon Natural Desert Association, had petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the pygmy rabbit a threatened or endangered species in eight Western states.
The agency said their petition lacked enough biological information to warrant a study.
The 1-pound pygmy is the only North American rabbit to make its own burrow. The rabbit depends on dense stands of sagebrush and deep, loose soils.
One population of the rabbit – the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit, which is found only in the sagebrush of Eastern Washington – was placed on the federal endangered list in 2003.