[SANET-MG] Columbia Pygmy rabbits and pharm crops

[jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>]

Human insulin and carp growth hormone genes are being used to modify 
safflower and huge tests plots are being allowed in the area where 
endangered Columbia pygmy rabbits range. These endangered rabbits seem 
to have been ignored or written off by Washington State and USDA 
bureaucrats who allowed , if not encouraged , the tests. The article 
below deals with the efort to preserve the bunnies , but their 
endangered lives will not be betered by the pharm crops in their midst.
Seattle Times March 13, 2007
Captive breeding offers hope for near-extinct pygmy rabbits

By John K. Wiley
The Associated Press

EPHRATA — Wildlife officials today released 20 Columbia Basin pygmy 
rabbits that were raised in captivity to a sagebrush-covered area of 
central Washington state where their ancestors roamed before teetering 
on the edge of extinction.

The pygmy rabbits were born and raised at Washington State University 
and the Portland Zoo in Oregon and are descendants of the last known 
wild rabbits caught in 2002 for a captive breeding program intended to 
restore the endangered species.

The effort is similar to the breeding programs that brought back the 
California condor, said Ren Lohoefener, Pacific regional director of the 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, Ore.

"Any time you can bring something back from zero and re-establish it, 
it's cause to celebrate," he said. "This may be harder to do than with 
condors, because a lot more things eat bunnies than condors. If it works 
here, maybe it can work in other areas."

The rabbits were released in the Sagebrush Flats area about 18 miles 
northwest of Ephrata, part of a five-county range that was the original 
habitat of the tiny sagebrush-eating rabbits. They are the only species 
of rabbits in the United States to dig their own burrows.

Pygmy rabbits are still found in the West's Great Basin, but the 
isolated Columbia Basin group is considered to be evolutionary distinct 
population, said Rod Sayler, a Washington State University associate 
professor of natural resource sciences who leads the captive breeding 
project.

The Northwest Trek Wildlife Park near Tacoma also participates in the 
captive breeding program, which has produced about 90 pygmy rabbits, 
including the 20 released Tuesday.

None of the purebred Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits are believed to remain 
in the wild, said Tom Buckley of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 
Only three purebred descendants of the original wild rabbits remain at 
the captive breeding sites, Sayler said.

Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits were mated with more genetically diverse 
Idaho pygmy rabbits and their offspring have at least 75 percent of the 
Columbia pygmy bloodlines, said Lisa Shipley, Sayler's colleague at WSU.

An immediate result was that the crossbred rabbits became better 
breeders and more of their young survived, Sayler said.

"We found out they were suffering from severe inbreeding depression," 
Sayler said. "No matter what we did, they just weren't reproducing well. 
Believe me, we tried everything."

"What that did was, it added in some genetic diversity. That population 
had been isolated for thousands of years," he said. "We added just 
enough to help them along and reproduction picked back up."

The reason the Columbia Basin rabbits declined is not known, although 
scientists suspect inbreeding among such a small population was a major 
factor. Range fires, farming, disease and predators also are thought to 
have taken their toll, said Madonna Luers of the Washington Department 
of Fish and Wildlife, which is cooperating with its federal counterparts 
in the program.

The tiny rabbits — not much bigger than a man's hand — were released 
into a barren sagebrush landscape.

The dozen males and eight females were placed in artificial burrows made 
of 20-foot-long perforated plastic irrigation pipes until they get used 
to the place and dig their own. Each wore a tiny radio transmitter the 
size of a watch battery to help scientists track its movements.

The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit — scientific name Brachylagus idahoensis 
— is the country's smallest native rabbit. It was listed as an 
endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act in 2003. 
Surveys in 2004 found none left in traditional areas.

The rabbits were released on public lands that are part of about 10,000 
acres the state fish and wildlife and natural resources departments have 
set aside for the rabbits.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

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