A gift of land to help conserve pygmy rabbits in their natural habitat is a reminder that there are a lot of different species of rabbits on earth, and that every animal has it’s place. It’s when they pop up out of their native range that problems occur.
The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit is the smallest rabbit native to North America and was emergency-listed as endangered in 2001. It is sadly ironic that species like the pygmy rabbit can be at risk of survival in their homeland but their relatives, European wild rabbits, are a blight on the Australian landscape and have become a threat to the survival of over 300 species of native animals since being introduced in the 1800s.
The message is, ‘There’s a place for every creature. Protect it in it’s place, and make sure it doesn’t invade that of another.’
For more information on the pygmy rabbit, see the article by Sam Fletcher in YakimaHerald.com.