Endangered rabbits are finally breeding like, well, rabbits!

I’m on this whole rabbit breeding kick. It started, and I thought, ended with Hugh Hefner’s bunnies being all endangered down in Florida. But then I came across this headline ”Last captive Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits are breeding in wild, scientists say” and, well, the interest began anew.

I mean, this is a big deal. Read:

The only surviving pair of endangered pygmy rabbits released as part of a program to increase their numbers in the wild have dodged coyotes, badgers, hawks and owls and found time for love…
“We were worried. It took them a little while, but they did what rabbits do best,” Rod Sayler, a Washington State University conservation biologist, said from Pullman.

See? Even the scientist on the case couldn’t resist the glaring cliche inherent in this story. Also, just in case this is too fluffy and cute for you, check this out, the male bunny studmuffin was nicknamed Utapau - after a planet in the Star Wars movies - by Washington State University students.

I didn’t even know about these bunnies previous to reading this story. Who knows why not. They come in adorable sizes (slightly larger than your hand) and are the only bunnies in the US that dig their own burrows. Scientists aren’t exactly sure but suspect inbreeding, range fires, farming, disease and predators are to blame for the Columbia Basin bunnies demise.

Check out this Oregon Zoo video of the critters being released into the hazardous wild (*&$%!ing adorable. Note the “takeout” container they’re transported in). Meadow, a pygmy bunny there, was named “Zoo Mother of the Year” in 2006. Goooo Meadow!