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Slideshow: What's Killing the Pygmy Rabbit
Slideshow: A Day in the Life of a Zoo Pathologist
The pygmy rabbits at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park were dying. Rapidly. On one visit to their pens at the wildlife preserve, about 95 km south of Seattle, they would be munching contentedly on fresh greens or sagebrush. On the next routine check, the tiny 400-gram rabbits, roughly the size of baby cottontails, would be dead. In some cases, the rabbits crawled into their burrows and never came out; in others, wildlife staff found them sitting, motionless.
Something killed Titon on February 6, then Minnie on February 7. That wasn't unusual for the highly endangered species, which has a mortality rate that is likely greater than 50% per year. But then the pace quickened. Wazzu died on February 22, followed by a death nearly every day, sometimes two, with little or no warning. ...
