Lake County, ORE– On Thursday, Jan. 24 the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it will begin a 12-month review to determine whether to list the pygmy rabbit as a threatened or endangered species.
The FWS received a petition on March 6, 2023, from the Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, and Defenders of Wildlife requesting the pygmy rabbit be listed as threatened or endangered.
The last time the FWS reviewed the status of the pygmy rabbit was in 2010 and at that time the agency decided not to list the species as threatened or endangered.
The pygmy rabbit is the world’s smallest rabbi and lives in the Sagebrush Sea, which covers portions of southeastern Oregon.
According to the petition, the rabbit is threatened by livestock grazing, wildfire, invasive non-native grasses, and habitat degradation
