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Pygmy rabbit

Brachylagus idahoensis · Hares and rabbits · Small game

Pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis): Smallest rabbit in North America, 246-462 g, 23.5-29.5 cm. Short rounded ears with white margins; dense hair on ears and feet. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Brachylagus idahoensis
Family
Leporidae
In North America
Native
Range
Great Basin and intermountain West: southwestern Montana through southern Idaho, Oregon, northern Utah, Nevada, eastern California, with isolated populations in Washington and Wyoming.
Biology

How to identify it

Smallest rabbit in North America, 246-462 g, 23.5-29.5 cm. [1]

Short rounded ears with white margins; dense hair on ears and feet. [1]

Brown to dark grey. [1]

Field knowledge

Where it lives

Big sagebrush habitat, secondarily rabbitbrush, at roughly 1,370-2,135 m. [1]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Only North American rabbit that digs its own burrows, with multiple entrances at sagebrush bases [1]

Diurnal and social [1]

Uses runways between food plants above and below snow [1]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Conservation and protection

  • ENDANGERED — The pygmy rabbit, Columbia Basin DPS (WA-Douglas, Grant, Lincoln, Adams, Benton Counties): listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 2001-11-30. · ECOS species profile: Pygmy Rabbit

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Great Basin and intermountain West: southwestern Montana through southern Idaho, Oregon, northern Utah, Nevada, eastern California, with isolated populations in Washington and Wyoming.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. BIOLOGICALPygmy Rabbit

    Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology