Officials release pygmy rabbit recovery plan

Written byIvan Oransky

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The US Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft recovery plan for the endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit, a subject I linkurl:wrote about;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53232/ in our June issue. The tiny rabbits -- on average, adults weigh just 400 grams and are only 25 centimeters long -- have been on the Federal endangered species list since 2001. That year, officials were only able to scoop up 30 of them when they searched throughout their native habitat of the Great Basin of the United States, extending from the Great Salt Lake in Utah and northwest to the state of Washington. The plan, estimated to cost a total of $2.4 million between now and 2016, builds on several years of experience breeding the rabbits in captivity, and one experimental release this past spring. That release, of 20 rabbits, has had its linkurl:ups and downs. ;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53292/ Only one male rabbit is linkurl:left in the wild, ;http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/state/story/9284617p-9199073c.html and it's unclear if any females had litters. (A few males had been brought back to captive breeding facilities early in the project.) You can view the plan linkurl:here;http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plans/2007/070907.pdf and find out how to comment on it linkurl:here. ;http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E7-17679.htm

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