75th Celebration: Idaho's Easter Bunny - The Pygmy Rabbit

Spring is officially here, which means it's time once again for the shy and retiring rabbit to endure its brief stint in the Easter spotlight. For centuries, rabbits have served as symbols of springtime renewal and fertility, owing to their ability to produce many offspring. Over time, a melding of folkloric and religious beliefs created the Easter Bunny, deliverer of baskets brimming with colored eggs and chocolate for good children everywhere. But not all rabbits are as famous, wide-ranging, or prolific as "Peter Cottontail." At the other end of the spectrum is the pygmy rabbit, the smallest rabbit in North America and possibly the smallest rabbit in the world. Harkening back to 1890, in the "plains and valleys covered with sage" of Idaho's majestic Pashimeroi Valley, zoologist C. Hart Merriam encountered a new species that "requires comparison with no other rabbit, its small size, short head, apparent absence of tail...distinguish it at a glance from all previously known species." Merriam named this diminutive animal the pygmy rabbit. To read more about Idaho's pygmy rabbit and other 75th Celebration stories, visit the Fish and Game website at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/75th.