I adored this post, which I just devoured. Thank you. I am always delighted to read rewilding stories from far and wide especially when I have never heard of the animal before. Goodness, these tiny arboreal, sagebrush-obligate bunnies are divine. Thank you also for bringing to my attention the difference between wild and free. In this world, the latter feels very useful.
Hooray! I'm so glad the pygmy rabbits struck a chord with you. I fell in love with them too. :)
Random aside: I've pre-ordered Weathering from Waterstones UK, but have the publisher given you a date for the U.S. release yet? I know several people who will want a copy.
What a beautiful post. As I read I couldn't stop thinking about the lithium boom. Have you any information on where these restoration efforts are located?
The sagebrush sea is it's own kind of place. I stayed at Thacker Pass for a about eight days, and though the heat was almost overwhelming, I found myself gradually becoming aware of the diverse life around me. Much of it was low to the ground, or underground to avoid the heat, with burrow pits everywhere. There was also an amazing plethora of insects. By the time I left, it felt like the land around me hummed with life.
Thanks for the mention. I should point out that the idea of "free" vs. wild nature is not my idea, just something I've heard here and there.
Hi Rob. I made a quick little adjustment to the section where I mentioned you, just to (hopefully) make it clearer that you were sharing an idea about how we could talk about wildness, not necessarily claiming it was your own. I appreciate you bringing that idea to my attention, though, because working in wildlife law, it's an issue that comes up for me a lot, and that I've thought a lot about. Your suggestion definitely gave me a new way to think about it. :)
The restoration efforts I wrote about here are limited to eastern Washington. From my research, it seems the land where the Columbia Basin bunnies reside is pretty well-protected from extraction, etc. The big risk there is frequent fire, as I understand it.
The range of the other pygmy rabbits (Great Basin), however, might well overlap Thacker Pass. From what I can tell, their core habitat areas trace the Oregon/Nevada border for most of its length, stretching quite a bit south into NV. I have a copy of the recent petition to list them under the endangered species act, so I may come across more info there as I dig into it.
Oh, you are so welcome! I'm glad the magic of the sagebrush sea drew you in a little ... it can seem such a forbidding landscape at first, but has so many secrets to reveal. 💚
I grew up in the Coachella Valley, and I can’t help but feel affinity for the little creatures that have created for themselves a (very cute) ecological niche.
“I like Rob’s suggestion to try the word ‘free.’ To me, that honors their existence and gives us something to strive for in this age of unimaginable losses.”
Oh, thanks so much, Max. There really is something amazing about all the beings who comprise the rich ecosystems of the dry American west ... how life will find a way.
Oh, I meant to mention that I have only been to the Coachella Valley once (and yes, it was for the Coachella Festival, but in my defense it was the first year it was held, in 1999, and I got to wander among Beck and Rage Against the Machine and Jurassic 5, with so few other humans in attendance that I could walk right up to the stage) and I fell in LOVE with that landscape. What a special place to have grown up (although of course every place has its problems). I just remember the air smelled different out there. Maybe it was the sagebrush. :)
I had no idea about these bunnies. We have a group of eastern cottontails in the blackberry patch on the vacant lot next to us. They max out at a dozen in the summer, but by this time of year they're down to four. Spring, with the babies, is always fun.
Oh, I am a bit jealous. Maybe you'll share some photos of your local kits on Notes this spring? :)
If you do ever end up on the other side of the Cascades, and see a wee bunny without the white tail of the cottontail, but with a brown puff instead, you might have seen a Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit.
I may be heading out to West Plains next month, weather permitting. And in September, we'll be in Kennewick for my wife's Ironman 70.3. I plan to be writing about that area, the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Basin, through my usual lens of water. I'll be looking for what sagebrush is left from the encroaching alfalfa. I'll keep an eye out for bunnies!
Nice article, beautifully written. Barry Lopez was a great loss, one of my favorite writers, so thoughtful and attuned to the natural world. Pygmy rabbits don't need to justify their existence for us. That attitude is foundational to much of the trouble we're in. They got this far, so they have a right, period. I will never see most of the creatures I admire, but knowing they are in the world makes my world better.
100%! I agree wholeheartedly. I hope one day for the pygmy rabbits that they (and other species) can live in a more self-directed way, free of our influence and our society's perceived need for them to justify their existence.
I just re-read the opening of Arctic Dreams, the first Lopez book I ever read. Gah! Stabbed through my heart. We lost a great one, indeed.
Been thinking a lot about rewilding as I just spent a month in New Zealand. They are making great efforts to rewild some of their bird populations, as well as native fauna (if you can rewild fauna?). The tradeoff is the mass trapping and killing of rats, possums and other invasive mammals. I can't help but feel conflicted, as it's a mass killing of one species to save another. I'd love your perspective, either here or as inspiration for a future post. If you are so inclined, of course. 🙂
Thanks so much for stopping by here, Michael. I read your most recent post on your NZ travels, and am looking forward to digging into your archives a bit! Really good stuff.
Funny you should mention the work NZ is doing to recover species that they perceive as being threatened by invaders. I only use the word "perceive" because I haven't read enough on their particular situation to know how clear-cut that is. Here in the U.S., (as with everything here, these days) there is a raging debate about killing newcomer and/or invading species to preserve native species. The debate varies in tone whether it's restoration ecologists using herbicides to kill invasive plants, versus, say, biologists poisoning introduced rats on an island to give the endangered local birds a chance. The latter is happening in a few places, including the Channel Islands off the coast of California, in a manner that I believe is rather similar to what's being done in NZ.
I've been thinking about it a lot because the US Fish and Wildlife Service is currently doing analysis on plans to kill barred owls on the west coast in order to provide some hope for the dwindling endangered spotted owls, whom the "invader" barred owls outcompete (and sometimes kill). It's -- for me -- fraught because these two species are so closely related they can interbreed, and do. And because I have spent much of my career fighting to save spotted owls. But, I am not in support of mass-killing barred owls to do it. It's been bubbling in my mind to get at the topic you suggested using the barred owl/spotted owl issue as an entry ... thanks for the nudge.
Sorry for the over-long reply. I guess I have a lot to say on this. :)
I was unaware of his death until well after the fact. It's sad that one of his last experiences was a climate fueled wildfire burning his property. Nature is the boss. I hope by some miracle we figure that out.
What lovely rabbits, i hope they can thrive as a species / almost species well into the future.
In Scotland, we have a similar discussion with the Scottish Wildcat which has interbred with domestic cats so much that there are probably no genetically pure Scottish Wildcats in existence.
Oh and European rabbits make their own burrows, so i guess you meant that the pygmy rabbits are the only American bunnies to make their own burrows
I adored this post, which I just devoured. Thank you. I am always delighted to read rewilding stories from far and wide especially when I have never heard of the animal before. Goodness, these tiny arboreal, sagebrush-obligate bunnies are divine. Thank you also for bringing to my attention the difference between wild and free. In this world, the latter feels very useful.
Hooray! I'm so glad the pygmy rabbits struck a chord with you. I fell in love with them too. :)
Random aside: I've pre-ordered Weathering from Waterstones UK, but have the publisher given you a date for the U.S. release yet? I know several people who will want a copy.
Aww thank you. No, still waiting on a date for the US! It can't be too long now but who knows 😆 thank you so much for pre ordering a UK one though!
What a beautiful post. As I read I couldn't stop thinking about the lithium boom. Have you any information on where these restoration efforts are located?
The sagebrush sea is it's own kind of place. I stayed at Thacker Pass for a about eight days, and though the heat was almost overwhelming, I found myself gradually becoming aware of the diverse life around me. Much of it was low to the ground, or underground to avoid the heat, with burrow pits everywhere. There was also an amazing plethora of insects. By the time I left, it felt like the land around me hummed with life.
Thanks for the mention. I should point out that the idea of "free" vs. wild nature is not my idea, just something I've heard here and there.
Hi Rob. I made a quick little adjustment to the section where I mentioned you, just to (hopefully) make it clearer that you were sharing an idea about how we could talk about wildness, not necessarily claiming it was your own. I appreciate you bringing that idea to my attention, though, because working in wildlife law, it's an issue that comes up for me a lot, and that I've thought a lot about. Your suggestion definitely gave me a new way to think about it. :)
The restoration efforts I wrote about here are limited to eastern Washington. From my research, it seems the land where the Columbia Basin bunnies reside is pretty well-protected from extraction, etc. The big risk there is frequent fire, as I understand it.
The range of the other pygmy rabbits (Great Basin), however, might well overlap Thacker Pass. From what I can tell, their core habitat areas trace the Oregon/Nevada border for most of its length, stretching quite a bit south into NV. I have a copy of the recent petition to list them under the endangered species act, so I may come across more info there as I dig into it.
Thanks, Rebecca. Lithium is there, northern Nevada into southern Oregon. They are in peril. Getting Endangered Species protection would seem critical.
I <3 Pygmy Rabbits and I'm delighted that you wrote about them
Gorgeous! Thank you for this tour of the sagebrush sea, and the real work of rewilding
Oh, you are so welcome! I'm glad the magic of the sagebrush sea drew you in a little ... it can seem such a forbidding landscape at first, but has so many secrets to reveal. 💚
I grew up in the Coachella Valley, and I can’t help but feel affinity for the little creatures that have created for themselves a (very cute) ecological niche.
“I like Rob’s suggestion to try the word ‘free.’ To me, that honors their existence and gives us something to strive for in this age of unimaginable losses.”
I love this.
Oh, thanks so much, Max. There really is something amazing about all the beings who comprise the rich ecosystems of the dry American west ... how life will find a way.
Oh, I meant to mention that I have only been to the Coachella Valley once (and yes, it was for the Coachella Festival, but in my defense it was the first year it was held, in 1999, and I got to wander among Beck and Rage Against the Machine and Jurassic 5, with so few other humans in attendance that I could walk right up to the stage) and I fell in LOVE with that landscape. What a special place to have grown up (although of course every place has its problems). I just remember the air smelled different out there. Maybe it was the sagebrush. :)
Thanks for this, Rebecca.
You're so very welcome, John. Thanks for stopping through. :)
I had no idea about these bunnies. We have a group of eastern cottontails in the blackberry patch on the vacant lot next to us. They max out at a dozen in the summer, but by this time of year they're down to four. Spring, with the babies, is always fun.
Oh, I am a bit jealous. Maybe you'll share some photos of your local kits on Notes this spring? :)
If you do ever end up on the other side of the Cascades, and see a wee bunny without the white tail of the cottontail, but with a brown puff instead, you might have seen a Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit.
I certainly will!
I may be heading out to West Plains next month, weather permitting. And in September, we'll be in Kennewick for my wife's Ironman 70.3. I plan to be writing about that area, the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Basin, through my usual lens of water. I'll be looking for what sagebrush is left from the encroaching alfalfa. I'll keep an eye out for bunnies!
Nice article, beautifully written. Barry Lopez was a great loss, one of my favorite writers, so thoughtful and attuned to the natural world. Pygmy rabbits don't need to justify their existence for us. That attitude is foundational to much of the trouble we're in. They got this far, so they have a right, period. I will never see most of the creatures I admire, but knowing they are in the world makes my world better.
100%! I agree wholeheartedly. I hope one day for the pygmy rabbits that they (and other species) can live in a more self-directed way, free of our influence and our society's perceived need for them to justify their existence.
I just re-read the opening of Arctic Dreams, the first Lopez book I ever read. Gah! Stabbed through my heart. We lost a great one, indeed.
Been thinking a lot about rewilding as I just spent a month in New Zealand. They are making great efforts to rewild some of their bird populations, as well as native fauna (if you can rewild fauna?). The tradeoff is the mass trapping and killing of rats, possums and other invasive mammals. I can't help but feel conflicted, as it's a mass killing of one species to save another. I'd love your perspective, either here or as inspiration for a future post. If you are so inclined, of course. 🙂
Thanks so much for stopping by here, Michael. I read your most recent post on your NZ travels, and am looking forward to digging into your archives a bit! Really good stuff.
Funny you should mention the work NZ is doing to recover species that they perceive as being threatened by invaders. I only use the word "perceive" because I haven't read enough on their particular situation to know how clear-cut that is. Here in the U.S., (as with everything here, these days) there is a raging debate about killing newcomer and/or invading species to preserve native species. The debate varies in tone whether it's restoration ecologists using herbicides to kill invasive plants, versus, say, biologists poisoning introduced rats on an island to give the endangered local birds a chance. The latter is happening in a few places, including the Channel Islands off the coast of California, in a manner that I believe is rather similar to what's being done in NZ.
I've been thinking about it a lot because the US Fish and Wildlife Service is currently doing analysis on plans to kill barred owls on the west coast in order to provide some hope for the dwindling endangered spotted owls, whom the "invader" barred owls outcompete (and sometimes kill). It's -- for me -- fraught because these two species are so closely related they can interbreed, and do. And because I have spent much of my career fighting to save spotted owls. But, I am not in support of mass-killing barred owls to do it. It's been bubbling in my mind to get at the topic you suggested using the barred owl/spotted owl issue as an entry ... thanks for the nudge.
Sorry for the over-long reply. I guess I have a lot to say on this. :)
I thought you might and appreciate the thoughtful answer. Look forward to reading more.
I was unaware of his death until well after the fact. It's sad that one of his last experiences was a climate fueled wildfire burning his property. Nature is the boss. I hope by some miracle we figure that out.
What lovely rabbits, i hope they can thrive as a species / almost species well into the future.
In Scotland, we have a similar discussion with the Scottish Wildcat which has interbred with domestic cats so much that there are probably no genetically pure Scottish Wildcats in existence.
Oh and European rabbits make their own burrows, so i guess you meant that the pygmy rabbits are the only American bunnies to make their own burrows