Washington’s 486 European rabbit records belong overwhelmingly to the San Juan Islands. San Juan County holds 180 of them, and the two heaviest site concentrations in the state are San Juan Islands National Monument and San Juan Island National Historical Park, together accounting for most of the island total.
Feral islanders, not wild natives
The European rabbit is the wild ancestor of the domestic rabbit, and Washington’s animals descend from stock released or escaped on islands and around settlements. Feral colonies have dug in for generations in the San Juans, where the rabbits graze open grassland down to turf and honeycomb soft ground with burrows. Scattered records in King, Snohomish, Island, and Pierce counties mark smaller establishments around the Puget Sound mainland, and a handful reach the Olympic and Pacific coasts.
Breeding through a mild year
In the gentle maritime climate of the islands, European rabbits can raise litters through much of the year. Washington’s counts crest in July, the height of summer grazing when young rabbits are everywhere above ground, and never fall away completely in any month.
Status in Washington
The European rabbit is an introduced species in Washington and does not occur here as a wild native population; NatureServe assigns it SNA, Not Applicable. In a striking reversal, the same species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN in its native Iberian Peninsula, even as its feral descendants thrive on Washington’s islands.
Full species profile
