Last Male Purebred Columbian Basin Pygmy Rabbit Dies
Jon Marvel of Western Watersheds Project has an eloquent quote in the Eugene Register Guard about the continuing demise of this species endemic to north-central Washington:
"This is a population that has existed since before the last Ice Age in Eastern Washington. The loss is something we can never calculate," said Jon Marvel, executive director of the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project, which works to protect pygmy rabbit populations across the West. "Any time we lose a species it diminishes us all."
Biologists are continuing their captive breeding efforts by crossbreeding the two surviving females with another subspecies, the Idaho pygmy rabbit.
Center for Native Ecosystems is part of a coalition working to save the entire pygmy rabbit species, which used to inhabit huge portions of the Sagebrush Sea across Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
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Center for Native Ecosystems
Our mission, simply put, is to save endangered species across Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. We play an "urgent care" role for the imperiled plants and wildlife most at risk of extinction, buying some time to figure out the long term solutions. We also work hard to recover these species, restoring them and their habitats to health. And we blog because doing so gives us a great way of keeping folks a little more plugged in to what's happening in the world of endangered species advocacy, offering some insight into what we do and how we do it, and fostering conversation among our supporters, our staff, and others.
