Pygmy rabbit

The pygmy rabbit, Brachylagus idahoensis, is a small rabbit of the sagebrush country of western North America. Adults weigh between 375 and 500 grams and have a body length of about 23.5 to 29.5 centimetres, with females slightly larger than males. Its range covers most of the Great Basin and some neighbouring intermountain areas, where it lives on deep soils under tall, dense sagebrush that supplies both shelter and food; big sagebrush can make up as much as 99 percent of its winter diet. It is one of only two native North American rabbits that dig their own burrows, the other being the volcano rabbit. Pygmy rabbits can be active at any time of day but are usually busiest at dusk and dawn. The IUCN assessed the species as least concern in 2016, although the isolated Columbia Basin population was listed as endangered in the United States and its last purebred animal died in 2008.