Oregon Public Broadcasting

The federal government announced Tuesday that it will consider endangered species protection for the pygmy rabbit.  The smallest of our native rabbits is struggling to survive across eight Western states.  Correspondent Tom Banse has more.

Since 2003, environmental groups have petitioned for protection of the pygmy rabbit.  Their first try was turned down. 

Then, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider, which brings us to today.

In Boise, Katy Fite of the Western Watersheds Project is assembling evidence to persuade the government that the pygmy rabbit is threatened with extinction.

Katy Fite: “The keystone plant that the pygmy rabbit must have to survive – the sagebrush -- that seems so common and ubiquitous, it’s been beaten and battered by livestock grazing so you can’t even hide a one pound rabbit underneath it.”

Pygmy rabbits are already protected in Washington State, so this petition mainly affects the Great Basin including Eastern Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada.