WDFW continues pygmy rabbit management

OLYMPIA — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public comment on an updated recovery plan for pygmy rabbit populations in Central Washington. The “draft status report” recommends keeping the rabbits on the state’s endangered species list. Comments will be accepted through Aug. 27. 

Most of the remaining wild pygmy rabbit populations in the state are in Douglas and Grant counties.

Jennifer Becar, WDFW media specialist, said WDFW officials are hoping to hear from people who have information about pygmy rabbits that the agency might not know.

“That information is definitely helpful,” she said. 

Fish and Wildlife officials are especially interested in information about any pygmy rabbit colonies that might not have been identified by WDFW yet. 

The agency also is looking for any and all comments, pro and con, she said.

The periodic status recommendation details the department’s conclusions after reviewing the current state of rabbit populations.

“It provides our rationale for why we made the decision we did,” Becar said.

While there are pygmy rabbit colonies throughout the West, the colonies in the Columbia Basin are separate from other populations, according to the draft report. While they have a wide range, they require specific geographical conditions for their colonies, it said. They like dense sagebrush.

There’s less of that than there used to be in Central Washington, and pygmy rabbit populations declined as a result. Efforts to save the rabbits began in 2002; biologists started with captive breeding programs, then moved to “semi-wild breeding,” with colonies that lived within fenced areas.

Populations increased through 2015, the report said, but disease almost wiped out the rabbits in 2016. Biologists changed how they managed rabbit populations, and that, along with the infusion of rabbits from the Great Basin, led to some recovery. But the Pearl Hill fire in 2020 destroyed a lot of suitable habitats and killed a lot of the pygmy rabbits in its path. 

“Currently two small, wild populations occur in the Beezley Hills and Sagebrush Flats Recovery Areas,” the report said.

The threat from disease seems to have diminished due to the change in managing the population, but range fires are still a threat, the report said. 

“The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit population has not met population or secure habitat criteria for down-listing from its current state endangered classification. The population remains small and its distribution in the wild is extremely limited,” the report said. “It is therefore recommended that the pygmy rabbit remain a state endangered species.” 

People can comment on the report via email, TandEpubliccom@dfw.wa.gov, or mail their comments to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Attention Taylor Cotten, P.O. Box 43141, Olympia, WA 98504.

The report, the comments received and other information will go to the WDFW Commission for a final decision. That discussion is tentatively scheduled for fall 2024.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.