Pygmy rabbit habitat network reveals threats and opportunities for management and conservation

ContextIdentifying core habitat areas and corridors is a first step to ensuring suitable areas are available to support movement and gene flow. The pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) is a species of concern and a sagebrush obligate of the arid Great Basin, yet a habitat network of core areas and corridors for this species has not been assessed.MethodsUsing a multiscale habitat modeling approach, we mapped pygmy rabbit habitat suitability and identified important variables that define habitat suitability. Movement pinch points in the Snake River plain and from Nevada west to Oregon/Idaho were identified from our connectivity analyses.ResultsVegetation and climate variables were key for predicting pygmy rabbit habitat suitability constituting 38% and 31% of total variable importance respectively. Vegetation variables were consistently selected at fine spatial scales (90-720 m) whereas all other types of variables varied in their spatial scale. The level of protection for corridors compared to core areas differed depending upon the metric. Core areas had a greater percentage of sage-grouse priority Habitat Management Area but a lower percentage of total Habitat Management Area compared to corridors. Threats were consistently higher for corridors compared to core areas across a wide range of metrics.ConclusionsThe network of corridors and core areas from this analysis provide land managers with a starting point to develop site-specific plans to enhance pygmy rabbit habitat and connectivity. Corridors tended to have less protection under the sage-grouse priority areas than core areas and appear to be potentially more susceptible to climate-change range retraction.