Associated Press
EATONVILLE — Wildlife biologists are hoping that four tiny bunnies will do what rabbits are supposed to and help restore the diminishing pygmy rabbit population in Eastern Washington.
Allie, Timothy, Juniper and Artemis were brought from Idaho to the Northwest Trek wildlife park on Tuesday.
Wildlife officials plan to study the four pygmy rabbits’ eating, breeding and other characteristics. The rabbits also will be given plentiful opportunities to reproduce youngsters.
Officials at the park east of Tacoma don’t plan to release the rabbits or their offspring into the wild. To avoid the stress of visitors, the rabbits will not be on public display.
An estimated dozen pygmy rabbits are left in Washington. The state has listed the smallest rabbit in North America as an endangered species, and the federal government is considering whether to classify the rabbits as threatened or endangered, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The state’s unique strain of pygmy rabbits has been hurt by agriculture, wildfires and predators. Once found in five Eastern Washington counties, the rabbits have been squeezed to a small site at Sagebrush Flat near Ephrata, wildlife biologists say.
Trek officials will work with the wildlife department and the Oregon Zoo.
"Hopefully this is just the beginning of a constant, ongoing relationship with the Department of Fish and Wildlife where we can continue to help them with recovery programs for endangered species," said Northwest Trek deputy director Dave Ellis.
Most of Washington’s native pygmy rabbit population was captured last May and taken to Washington State University for breeding and eventual rerelease to the wild. The state’s five-year plan calls for 100 rabbits to be released from its breeding sites each year.
Three of the rabbits for the study were captured in Idaho and the other was born at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, said David Hays, an endangered-species biologist for the state.
The rabbits will live in their own cages in a 16-by-24-foot hutch, built with a $5,000 donation from the Northwest Trek Foundation. Their new home is complete with drainage pipes to provide burrows and newly planted sagebrush, a favored meal.
"Those little sagebrush bundles are going to look very realistic to the rabbits," Hays said. "The rabbits are really going to like this."
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