Pygmy Rabbit

Pygmy Rabbit (Brachyiagus idahoensis)
Species Code: SYID

What they look like: This rabbit is the smallest rabbit in the world! It has gray fur and has little white spots on its nose.

How big are they? Length: It can grow about as long as your mom or dad's foot! Weight: It can weigh up to 1 pound - as much as a big bag of skittles or M&M's!

Where they live: It lives in burrows that are near sagebrush and tall grass. To you and me, it would be like living in a forest with tall trees all around us.

What they eat: They like to eat a lot of grass, just as much as we like to eat ice cream in the summer time! The the winter, they mainly eat sagebrush, which limits wher they can live.

Conservation: The pygmy rabbit is very rare because of declines in population size and loss of sagebrush habitat. Farms have taken over the areas with deep soil needed for rabbit burrows. In 2003, the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit was listed as an endangered species.

Did you know?

• Pygmy Rabbits are dependent upon sagebrush for winter food.
• They are the only rabbits in the United States that dig their own burrows.