Here's a Wee Pygmy Bunny for Your Morning

Via U.S. Geological Survey, which writes:

Meet North America's smallest rabbit. And one of its least celebrated. 🐇

Pygmy rabbits don't attract much attention. They weigh less than a pound, they're cryptic by nature, and they spend a significant portion of their lives underground. They lack the charisma of megafauna, which makes them easy to overlook in conservation conversations.

DB note: I really take umbrage with the idea any rabbit lacks charisma! But we continue:

As a sagebrush obligate species, the pygmy rabbit's survival is tightly bound to the health of the sagebrush steppe, an ecosystem that supports more than 20 vertebrate species of conservation concern. Where pygmy rabbits persist, sagebrush habitat is generally intact. Where they disappear, it's often a signal that something broader is breaking down.

The USGS Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center is studying a specific and underexplored vulnerability: the relationship between pygmy rabbits and the microclimates beneath the snow. Pygmy rabbits rely on burrows and other spaces beneath the snow for refuge from predators and temperature extremes. As snowpack patterns shift with changing weather, those refuges may become less reliable, with consequences for survival, reproduction, and predator avoidance that aren't yet well understood.

To address that gap, researchers are using a physics-based computer model to simulate subsurface temperature and moisture conditions, then linking those outputs to biological models of habitat use, energy balance, and predator avoidance.

The project’s multidisciplinary team of physical and biological scientists as well as cooperating state and federal managers will integrate this work into decision-support tools to add transparency, repeatability, and rigor to the land management decision-making process.