As we see pygmies decline, it's representative of what's happening to other shrub steppe-related species of animals. The department says the rabbits declined as farming claimed most of their shrub steppe habitat of deep soil and large sagebrush in the last century. Fire, disease and predation all are more immediate factors. A Washington State University graduate student monitored 40 active burrows at Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area last summer and could find none of them this spring, Musser said. Disease is suspected because plague was found in a coyote blood sample, he said.
Coyotes prey on the rabbits.
We call them endangered because we don't expect the population to make if for very long. Beach called captive breeding a stopgap measure. Agents will try to capture rabbits in box traps placed in burrows and at their entrances, he said. Four rabbits will be taken to WSU to be quarantined and tested for disease. If the four appear healthy enough for breeding, agents will try to capture as many as 16 more to increase genetic variability in the breeding, Beach said.