Idaho gave this rabbit its scientific name, Brachylagus idahoensis, and the state’s sagebrush sea is still core range. Only 16 records exist here, split between GBIF and iNaturalist, which says more about how easily this fist-sized rabbit hides than about scarcity. It’s the smallest rabbit native to North America and one of only two rabbits on the continent that dig their own burrows instead of moving into someone else’s, always at the base of a big sagebrush plant.
The scattered monthly counts, never more than four sightings in any single month, don’t show a real seasonal pattern, just how hard this animal is to find. NatureServe ranks it S3, Vulnerable, in Idaho, and Idaho field studies have recorded annual mortality above 80 percent in some winters, so a thin record here doesn’t mean a thin population.
Craters of the Moon and the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey area protect the kind of dense, undisturbed sagebrush this rabbit depends on for both food and shelter.
Full species profile
