The pygmy rabbit, found in northern and western Utah and parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, California and Oregon, is pictured. (Photo courtesy of Miranda Crowell)
Environmental groups say a lawsuit is iminent unless the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service takes steps to protect the pygmy rabbit, a small species found in Utah and other Western states.
On Wednesday, attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians filed a 60-day notice of their intent to sue, accusing the Fish and Wildlife Service of violating the Endangered Species Act.
The service declined to comment on pending litigation.
The pygmy rabbit, which depends on sagebrush for its habitat, is found in northern and western Utah and parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, California and Oregon. It’s the smallest rabbit in North America, with its burrows usually just three inches in diameter, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
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On March 6, 2023, the environmental groups filed a petition arguing the pygmy rabbit’s health and habitat is threatened by livestock grazing, oil and gas production, invasive plants and wildfires, exacerbated by a new virus lethal to rabbits first found in Nevada in 2022.
In what’s called a “positive 90-day finding,” the Fish and Wildlife Service released a report in January 2024, writing that the groups’ petition “presented substantial information indicating that listing the pygmy rabbit may be warranted.”
According to court filings, if the government issues a positive 90-day finding, it must then release a more detailed 12-month finding a year from when the initial petition was submitted. March 6, 2024, came and went without that 12-month filing, the environmental groups allege in their notice.
“Under the law, the Service has 12 months to respond to petitions from the public with a determination about whether a species is eligible for Endangered Species Act protection,” said Michael Freeman, an attorney for Earthjustice, the law firm representing the environmental groups, in a statement. “The agency has blown that deadline by many months and is failing pygmy rabbits by not stepping up to protect them.”
If the Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t “promptly issue the overdue” 12-month finding, the groups say they will follow up with a lawsuit.
“Protection delayed is protection denied,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project.
The effort to list pygmy rabbits under the Endangered Species Act spans decades, with the first proposal filed in 1991. Another petition was submitted in 2003, which the Fish and Wildlife Service denied in 2010.
“The agency has been aware of the pygmy rabbit’s imperiled status since 1991, but it has never been protected under the Endangered Species Act. We’re not willing to let this species go extinct on our watch, and we hope today’s notice will spark action on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” Anderson said.
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