In the 2012 President's Budget Request, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is terminated. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within this web site will be removed on January 15, 2012. For more information, please refer to the NBII Program Termination page.
Pygmy Rabbit in snow [Photo: H. Ulmschneider and R. Dixon]
Pygmy Rabbit Brachylagus idahoensis
Description:The smallest North American leporid (at around 29 centimeters average length), the Pygmy Rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) ranges through much of the Great Basin and beyond in sagebrush dominated habitats. Pygmy rabbits are often confused with juvenile cottontails, but can be distinguished by their tails, which are uniformly brown in coloration and small in size, giving the impression that they are tailless. Also, the trailing edge of their ears have a pale buff marking.
Life History:Pygmy rabbits spend the majority of their life cycles within 30 meters of their burrow. The breeding period is from spring to early summer. Their winter diet consists predominantly of sagebrush; their summer diet is a mixture of sagebrush, grasses, and forbs. Active throughout the year, and generally crepuscular.
Habitat:Dense, tall stands of sagebrush associated with deep, loose soils for the construction of burrows. Pygmy rabbits are the only North American rabbit to dig their own burrows.
Distribution:Moderately large range in the Great Basin and Intermountain West; a genetically distinct population exists in the Columbia Basin.
Image:
Distribution of the Pygmy Rabbit [Image: NatureServe Explorer]
Status:The Columbia Basin population is federally listed as an endangered species; Great Basin populations are in decline throughout their range, but the level and scope of decline is unknown.
Image: Sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata) along Shingle Creek, Great Basin National Park, Nevada Photo Credit: Erik Beever, Great Basin Image Catalogue
The southwestern state of Nevada is bordered by Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah.
The state of Nevada has both the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts, and over 300 named mountain ranges. The Nevada Deserts are some of the driest, hottest, and coldest places in the United States. Nevada's official nickname is 'The Silver State' but it is also known as 'The Sagebrush State', and Sagebrush (
Artemesia tridentata
) is the Nevada state flower.
Water is an important resource for Nevada's arid ecosystems. The major river basins of Nevada, as described by the USGS National Water Information System, include the Amargosa Valley Basin, Black Rock Desert Basin, Bruneau River Basin, Carson River Basin, Colorado River Basin, Humboldt River Basin, Jakes Valley Basin, Las Vegas Valley Basin, Owyhee River Basin, Pyramid and Winnemucca Lakes Basin, Salmon Falls Creek Basin, Snake Valley Basin, Spring Valley Basin, Steptoe Valley Basin, Summit Lake Valley, Virgin River Basin, and Walker Lake Basin.
To find out more about regional issues such as wildlife disease, invasive species, fire, and water and drought, including links to state-specific resources, visit the SWIN Regional Themes page.
To find out about geospatial products, databases, and other information for Nevada and the Southwest, visit the SWIN Live Maps and Data page.
The Great Basin Information Project provides consolidated and efficient access to information about the Great Basin and the Columbia Plateau Regions of eastern Washington and Oregon, southern Idaho, northern Nevada and Utah, and portions of northeastern California. Three major plant communities grow in the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau: sagebrush, salt desert shrub, and pinyon-juniper woodlands. The Great Basin and Columbia Plateau regions comprise a large area of the western United States, approximately 225,674 sq. miles in size.
Mojave Desert Ecosystem
Mojave Desert. Credit: John J. Mosesso, NBII Digital Image Library
The objectives of the USGS Recoverability and Vulnerability of Desert Ecosystems (RVDE) project are to conduct basic scientific research on ecological processes within the Mojave Desert ecosystem and to use this knowledge to provide land managers with scientific understanding and tools needed to conserve and restore threatened desert landscapes.
The Mojave Desert covers 125,000 square kilometers of southern Nevada, western Arizona, southwestern Utah, and southeastern California. It is home to over 1 million people, including the nation's fastest growing city, Las Vegas, and is within a day's drive of 40 million people.
The NBII Program is administered by the Biological Informatics Program of the U.S. Geological Survey
