03/08/07 The Rabbitt Hops Back

The rabbit hops back. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. After coming dangerously close to the brink of extinction, the pygmy rabbit is hopping back. Thanks to intervention by a collaborative effort of agencies, Tom Buckley of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Spokane says they are ready to release nearly 2 dozen rabbits into the wild. BUCKLEY: The Columbia Basin distinct population of pygmy rabbits located in South Douglas and North Grant county area had been removed from the wild 3 or 4 years ago, the last few remaining rabbits out of that population had crashed. They were put into a captive breeding program and now at this stage we're ready to reintroduce in the neighborhood of about 2 dozen rabbits back into the wild on state wildlife lands. Weather permitting; about 23 pygmy rabbits will be released on a state wildlife area in Douglas County. The rabbits will be placed in artificial burrows for cover until they dig their own burrows, and will be equipped with tiny radio telemetry transmitters around their necks, to allow biologists to monitor their movements. Although wildlife biologists originally aimed to rear rabbits solely from Columbia Basin stock, that effort was unsuccessful. Biologists believe the rabbits' failure to thrive may be due in part to genetic inbreeding that occurred as rabbit numbers dwindled over time. Buckley says they specifically set out to retain as much of the original characteristics as possible. BUCKLEY: Because of the small population they were having some genetic difficulties and the biologists brought in some Idaho rabbits which were almost but not quite identical to the Columbia Basin rabbits. The bred them, then they back breed them so that the ones that are released are a minimum of 75% pure Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit but they do contain all of the special genes that were identified in the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits  and that was the goal to get those distinct characteristics maintained in the wild rabbits. More than 70 pygmy rabbits will remain in the captive breeding program to provide animals for future releases. While public lands will be the core areas for release of the rabbits, nearby private property owners also are important to the rabbit recovery effort. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington State University, the Oregon Zoo in Portland and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park collaborated in the recovery effort. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.