The future of Washington’s pygmy rabbits is holding on by a whisker. More accurately, that future remains in the hands of a few researchers and whether enough protected areas can be found to relaunch and maintain a healthy population.

Dr. Lisa Shipley, a wildlife ecologist in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University, is director of the modest Pygmy Rabbit Captive Breeding Facility, perched on top of a rise on the campus.

Pygmy rabbits have received some national attention the last few years, including a page in a recent National Geographic magazine with a photograph of 2-year-old Ivan, shot by former Herald photographer Rich Frishman. The life-size photo only took up about half the page.

The rabbits, on the federal endangered species list, are extremely habitat-sensitive: the only native North American rabbit (and the smallest) that digs its own burrow, they require loose soil and a diet of sagebrush.

Unfortunately, that deep soil habitat is scattered, partly because of geology and partly because farmers have converted much of sagebrush country into irrigated fields. The Columbia Basin rabbits, isolated from their kin, gradually became genetically different from Oregon and Idaho pygmys, Shipley said. Our population eventually succumbed to inbreeding, low reproduction, susceptibility to disease, and predators.

“The last known (state) population was near Ephrata, surrounded by farmlands. We’ve spent the last 10 years trying to reduce the fragmentation of habitat,” she said.

“The Nature Conservancy has been buying tracts. But most sagebrush-steppe species have been declining: ferriginous hawk, sage grouse, burrowing owls, pygmy rabbits,” Shipley said.

The remaining pygmy rabbits were captured in 2001 by state and federal wildlife folks and placed on the federal endangered species list; some came to WSU’s breeding program, others were sent to Portland’s Oregon Zoo and Northwest Trek, near Eatonville.

There was optimism the rabbits would breed like, well, rabbits. Then came the letdown.

“I was surprised how hard it was to get them to breed and reproduce” despite protective pens, special diets, a genetic specialist, sandy loam trucked in from Clarkston and the Palouse for burrowing purposes, continuous monitoring, and sagebrush (90 percent of the their diet).

The rabbits fought often and seldom mated. An intestinal parasite from the soil killed many of the remaining rabbits. Left with little choice, researchers brought in Idaho pygmy rabbits as a genetic-rescue solution. The move seems to be working. After a few generations, reproduction rates are increasing although offspring have only 75 percent of the original Washington genes.

A set of 20, descendants of the last wild pygymy rabbits, was released into the Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area; most of them were killed fairly quickly. Optimism rekindled last year when researchers reported seeing one young pygmy rabbit and one female bringing in nesting materials to a burrow.

“The jury’s still out. We’re trying inside breeding and more natural bunchgrass, so it will be great news if it works. So far it’s made a huge difference. Those rabbits had higher pregnancy and survival rates; half got out of the burrow,” Shipley said.

The recovery goal for the agencies is to create a minimum population of 1,400 adult pygmy rabbits in several areas that must be secure habitat with conservation plans in place.

“If society waits until there are 16 (of anything), it’s too late. Even 100 may be too late,” Shipley said. “Saving the habitat and wildlife has to be a priority for society. Species that are specialists are good indicators of the health of the habitat. We can’t continue to destroy ecosystems … It has to be part of our value system.”

Perhaps the pygmy rabbits can become Washington’s condors, but the jury’s still out.

On the bookshelf: Speaking of condors, Sophie Osborn’s book “Condors in Canyon Country: The Return of the California Condor to the Grand Canyon Region” ($30, Grand Canyon Association) tells the story of the return of that large, nearly extinct bird to the skies. It’s full of photographs, as well as a map that shows where fossils of prehistoric condors were found — some of them just south of the Columbia River in north-central Oregon.

Columnist Sharon can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.