Pygmy Rabbit habitat
The pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) is a species that lives in western North America. Populations exist, or have existed, in parts of east-central Washington, southeastern Oregon, northeastern California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, southwestern Wyoming, and southwestern Montana. They apparently require big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and deep soils in which they can burrow. A detailed habitat description was written by Helen Ulmschneider with several contributors; I've reproduced a version of it here.
These habitat photographs were taken in November 2004, in southern Utah, at or near the most southern location of the species. All images Copyright (c) 2004 by Scott Haywood. Click on an image to enlarge it.
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Several pygmy rabbit burrows
were along this wash.
You can see the old flower stalks, pale yellow-brown,
on some of the sagebrush.
At this site, there were very few plants
other than big sagebrush.
At some pygmy rabbit sites, there are more grasses and forbs.
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A pygmy rabbit burrow among the sagebrush close to
the bottom of the wash.
I placed a coin to the right of the opening; it is a U.S. quarter
(therefore about 24.26 mm in diameter).
There were other burrow entrances, visible in the left half
of the image.
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Closeup of another burrow entrance, beneath sagebrush,
close to the bottom of the wash.
On the right side of the image is the trunk of a sagebrush.
There were small rabbit pellets along the trails leading into
almost every burrow at this wash.
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Another pygmy rabbit burrow, in a bare area.
I placed a camera lens cap, black in color, beyond the opening;
it has a diameter of about 55 mm.
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The same one, a wider view looking toward the wash.
There were more holes amid the sagebrush
in the lower left.
Here again you can see the spent flowers on the sagebrush.
Also, notice the lack of vegetation between the shrubs.
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