Rabbit Species Threatened By Climate Change

The Easter Bunny may be a welcome visitor for children, but some of his brethren are facing great challenges. Several notable rabbit species are becoming increasingly threatened as a result of climate change.

According to Climate Nexus, rabbits from habitats as diverse as volcanoes in Mexico and the Florida Keys are facing threats such as rising sea levels, increasing temperatures or decreased snowfall.

For example, the snowshoe hare and pygmy rabbit both rely on snow for protection during the winter, but are seeing decreased snowfall in their habitats in recent years.

The pika, a smaller rabbit relative, could be the first North American species to become extinct as a result of global warming. Sensitive pikas live in cool, alpine areas, and will be unable to escape rising temperatures, according to World Wildlife Fund. They will also have difficulty migrating through warmer areas at lower elevations.

Other rabbit species that are not threatened in the wild still face other challenges during the Easter season. According to some reports, almost 80 percent of rabbits at shelters are abandoned Easter presents. If you're considering adopting a pet bunny, be sure to read these facts about keeping rabbits as pets.

In Australia, another animal, known as the bilby, is gravely threatened. The rare, rabbit-sized marsupial, which boasts only around 600 individuals in the wild, is receiving attention from a campaign to make it Australia's Easter animal.

Learn more about several threatened rabbit species below. Infographic courtesy of Climate Nexus.

Comments

[eaarth2]

03:48 PM on 04/18/2012

each half a degree rise in global temperatures brings new species into extinction- both animals and plants. the ubiquitous house cat is doing fine however- it will be needed in the future as more vermin proliferate like the indestructible rat.

[CanadaBob]

10:29 AM on 04/13/2012

Is the bunny the new polar bear for climate change alarmists? In 2004 experts were predicting the polar bear population would decrease by 30 to 40% in the next 6 or 7 years in Canada's north.

A recent survey by the Nunavut goverment indicates the population has increased by 10% since 2004.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

[gallon]

07:05 AM on 04/16/2012

You are cherry picking by selecting one bear population. Globally the bears are at risk.

[CanadaBob]

12:44 PM on 04/16/2012

Sorry, the 30 to 40% decrease I was referring to was the 2004 estimate given for Canada's Polar bear population for Nunavut.

Guess the facts get in the way of your story.

[oldwolf49]

02:58 AM on 04/10/2012

Why can't the conservatives experience a culling event due to climate change, I'd buy tickets to that and bring popcorn.

[olitenup]

08:25 PM on 04/10/2012

Isn't that the truth.

[StephenBP]

10:46 PM on 04/09/2012

While the danger to rabbits from climate change is very interesting, the lack of concern of conservatives for anything beyond their immediate event horizon is even more interesting to me. There is, for instance, another study recently showing that conservatives are not heavy thinkers. Hardly surprising.

The fact that rabbits might be our "canary in the coal mine" is just too intellectual of a concept for the average dim con to comprehend. Cons here are, I think, likely to mock and chatter like lower primates when confronted with the fact that rabbits are losing their habitats. It barely registers on their conscious mind that they might be next.

Well, rabbits moving north is one thing. Texans is a whole other thing.

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

10:48 PM on 04/09/2012

Well said.

[oldwolf49]

02:57 AM on 04/10/2012

I think the canary in the coal mine was the frog mass almost extinction and now the domino's are simply beginning to fall all in a row. Either way I think we are in trouble.

[olitenup]

08:26 PM on 04/10/2012

I agree. They have 3,000 dolphins dead on the shores of Peru.

[Son of Liberty 1765]

07:45 PM on 04/09/2012

They will move north.

[janmB]

05:08 PM on 04/09/2012

Some people don't care about any of the environmental losses to our planet or disappearing species .....they have their's so the next generation can just wing-it. The oceans are so polluted now that fish aren't fit to eat.... chemicals are bountiful in our food and air ... but they still don't care and say ho-hum there is always climate change .....but when they come down with cancer, a lung disease and tumors ....they'll care. .

[RebelRyder]

04:16 AM on 04/10/2012

Your post exactly illustrates the real problem. There are REAL environmental issues. But the environmental movement has been hijacked by the global warming scam and the control freaks behind it. So none of the real environmental issues get any attention.

[janmB]

06:22 AM on 04/10/2012

You are correct that there is too much talk about why there isn't global warming that when the Bush administration cut back around 400 environmental protections put into place...hardly anyone noticed.....back we went to square one.

[gallon]

04:11 PM on 04/10/2012

RebelRyder shares with us the fossil fuel perspective on all this.

[FTracy3]

12:12 PM on 04/09/2012

Would everyone who's panicky about CO2 please cut down on the amount by holding your breath until you pass out...

[Shan Wells]

02:43 PM on 04/09/2012

Would everyone who makes witless denier comments please take a basic science course about the carbon cycle?

[Son of Liberty 1765]

07:48 PM on 04/09/2012

I took more than one. 20 years ago the same "scientists" said we would run out of oil in 20-30 years. Here we are with more reserves than Obama will let us go near. These same scientists said 10 years ago that there would be 50 million Global Warming refugees in 10 years. There are none. Education in the classroom is not as valuable as life experience, a broad understanding of the almost infinite variables that could affect climate and the knowledge that today's scientific predictions are tommorow's fables.

[StephenBP]

10:33 PM on 04/09/2012

Uh, we've heard that before, believe it or not.

The amount of carbon dioxide that 7 billion humans release by breathing is less than 10 percent of the total amount that humans release by burning fossil fuel.

Humans put about 2 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the air every second from various sources, mostly combustion of junk fuels.

That is a lot of gas.

I find it interesting that "conservatives" want to keep putting millions of pounds of waste gas into the air every second at everyone's, including future generations', expense. That is a lot like yeast, mindlessly consuming every bit of fuel that they can and relentlessly breeding until they succumb to their own waste.

[Reality always bites]

09:57 AM on 04/09/2012

Climate change affecting wildlife-
Message- adapt or die.
Climate change affecting humankind-
Message -pay more taxes -give more to charity-
Climate change affecting politicians
Message- You can't fool all of the people all of the time!

[esso man]

10:53 AM on 04/09/2012

good afternoon reality, I have no problem with the country giving to charities AS LONG as its to help OUR OWN PEOPLE! but as per usual this & the other bunch of tossers decided it was in THEIR interests to give it away to any other country other than our own ! then have the down right cheek to say theres nothing left for the British public & "OOOH !! BY THE WAY"!! everything you buy is going to be more expensive due to us having to tax you even higher than we already are, so we can give more of it away ????, this bunch of wxnkers need to understand like us THEY HAVE to live within the perameters of their income from the public tax"s,& use it for BRITAIN & its populations only, untill they do this country is sliding further & further round the "s" bend of the lou,untill we eventualy end up in the sewer,which from the smell of things is not much further away !! these idiots HAVE TO BE stopped & SOON !! or we will be in a uncontrolable down swing to fiancial oblivion,& if people thought the general strike in the 1920s were bad, what we are about to face makes THAT look like a picnic in the park !!!!

[Reality always bites]

12:02 PM on 04/09/2012

Hey Esso Man- Calm down and have a happy Easter!
I quite agree- charity begins at home, and then only with worthwhile charities that have directors who recieve a sensible salary or honorarium.

[Son of Liberty 1765]

09:32 AM on 04/09/2012

THis just in: Climate Chainge will lead to more ear hair if we don't do something soon!

[SallyMaclennane]

08:55 AM on 04/09/2012

Guess what? Rabbit species have gone extinct before, and they will again. Climate changes....get over it.

[chrisd3]

09:14 AM on 04/09/2012

"Climate changes"

Yeah, we know. Everyone knows.

But climate change that we are CAUSING is a rather different matter.

Or do you see no distinction between, say, death from natural causes and murder? In response to a murder, do you say, "People die...get over it"?

[Shan Wells]

02:47 PM on 04/09/2012

Translation: "I don't know why rabbits are going extinct and I don't care."

[GhostOfFDR]

03:04 PM on 04/09/2012

No, Sally definitely knows why. If "she" ever posted anything coherent, I'd think "she" was one of the people paid not to care and to tell everyone about it.

[StephenBP]

07:30 AM on 04/09/2012

Two of the greatest icons of American civilization are threatened ( Santa Clause's workshop has sunk through the ice and moved to China, and the Easter bunny is moving towards Dodo land), and the profit worshippers don't even bat an eyelash in recognition of the damage that their short sighted money grubbing is doing!

Liberals have already saved the very very grand Bald Eagle from extinction. The yoyos of the petrochemical industry nearly exterminated the Bald Eagle with their wonderful profit maker, DDT. They will never forgive liberals for banning DDT. It was so cheap to make. It was so profitable. It was so long lasting.

I guess dead icons are just as good as their living embodiments to right wing authoritarians. Actually, I think they like dead icons even better than anything living. Mythology works much better when there are no living survivors to challenge it. Heck, they almost got away with Pat Tillman's murder.

So quick somebody call the Koko brothers*! Maybe they can send some of their industrial pollution poison to kill the last Easter bunny!

* David and Charles

[RebelRyder]

02:41 PM on 04/09/2012

DDT had nothing to do with saving Bald Eagles from extinction.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202447,00.html

The real reason DDT was banned is because it would have eradicated malaria in Africa. The enviro-whackos only really care about the supposed overpopulation problem, and not enough people would die from malaria if it were eradicated. Over 100,000,000 have died as a result. The same agenda is till going on. They call it "going green" or "saving the planet".

http://junksciencearchive.com/malaria_clock.html

[gallon]

02:59 PM on 04/09/2012

Oh sure. And you provide all the references too. Fox news. Junksciencearchive. Does anything feel out of place to you?

[StephenBP]

10:01 PM on 04/09/2012

How does it feel to be so misled?

The article you cite is so full of mistakes that it should never have been published.
There is no scientific doubt that the metabolite of DDT known as DDE nearly made the bald eagle extinct. Your citation doesn't mention DDE, therefore it was written with inadequate knowledge of the subject. It is childish piece of rubbish and it is smelly hogwash. Saying that DDT didn't make bald eagle egg shells weak and bring them to the brink of extinction completely overlooks the fact that DDT breaks down into DDE and DDE did nearly wipe out the bald eagle. Saying that DDT didn't do it is misleading, it is disingenuous.

Your lack of respect for science and scientists, and your adoration of Saudi owned FOX news is pathetic. What Steve Milloy has written is wrong and it is evil. And you fell for it. What does that make you?

By the way, DDT became increasingly less effective as insects adapted to it. There were not 100,000,000 people lost because DDT was banned. That is complete rubbish. Towards the end of its period of heavy use, DDT was not even working in many areas.

So many lies to correct. So little time to do it in.

[ARNOST]

10:19 PM on 04/08/2012

More Lies by The Elites !!!

[lbsaltzman]

11:17 PM on 04/08/2012

Wanting so see conspiracies is a good way of putting your head in the sand and ignoring global warming. And by the way just exactly who are the elites?

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

05:41 AM on 04/09/2012

Anyone with a better than grade school education.
Anyone who has ever actually read a whole book.

[ARNOST]

06:34 PM on 04/09/2012

Oh i do agree we need to not pollute and we should clean up the planet . How would you like to do that . Hmm we can stop making paint to paint houses we can stop building houses cars motor cycles jet ski's snow mobiles . shut down ford gm chrysler Dow chemical we can shut down bottled water companys . shut down the refinery's that wont work because dam that would mean there wouldn't be any need for money . I do not agree with trying to pass a carbon tax and i do not believe Global warming . As long as there is money to be made it wont stop ! oh dont forget that computer your sitting at is made of plastic which is made from oil bi products in a factory that pollutes .

[GhostOfFDR]

03:28 PM on 04/09/2012

Translating from "conservaspeak" into English we get "More facts by the people who know what they're talking about."

[Climate Lurker]

06:51 PM on 04/08/2012

Has anyone besides me been experiencing problems loading the friends activity and the activity tabs? Or maybe I have a piece of malware causing it? (Sorry to be off topic, but the issue is irritating me at the moment...)

[June25]

09:39 PM on 04/08/2012

Your not the only one.I have some person who I can neither friend or get rid of.I too suspect malware.But I would be lieing if I told you I had any way of knowing for sure.Let's just blame Anonymous.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

05:41 AM on 04/09/2012

Gremlins...I always blame gremlins.

[chrisd3]

09:16 AM on 04/09/2012

Those tabs haven't worked for me for weeks. They just show "Loading" and that's that.

[Climate Lurker]

10:23 AM on 04/09/2012

OK, then it's not something on my computer... probably.

[jleveryday]

04:35 PM on 04/08/2012

70% of the worlds species have went extinct at one time or another. Most of them due to some type of climate change.

[lbsaltzman]

06:10 PM on 04/08/2012

But for the first time ever, a single species homo sapiens, is changing the entire climate of the Earth and causing mass extinctions.

[anencephalic]

06:53 PM on 04/08/2012

yeah, right

[DinaWilliams110]

10:30 PM on 04/08/2012

Oh Give me a break!!!!!!!! This PLANET has been ever changing for 4.5 billon years; the amount of Carbon Dioxide humans produce over the past 100 years alone does NOT compare to what 1 Volcano, Tsunami, Earthquake, Polar Shift, Hurricane, or Solar Events, etc...can do.....GET REAL!!!!

[StephenBP]

07:22 PM on 04/08/2012

That is a remarkable statement.

Did you know that 100% of the world's extinct species aren't alive any more?

[jleveryday]

07:28 PM on 04/08/2012

part of evolution is death...the strong survive, the weak are culled..quit acting dumb..you're not God..you have no say in it.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

05:51 AM on 04/09/2012

I would fan you again if I could just for the arf otter prayer.

[mlaiuppa]

03:52 PM on 04/08/2012

Save the Pika! Move them to Canada and mountains farther North.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

05:45 AM on 04/09/2012

Intelligent response noted. (Love the bio.)