Groups seek endangered status for tiny animals

CASPER — Weighing less than 1 pound, with short ears, little legs and an endearingly “scampering gait,” the pygmy rabbit is the smallest rabbit species in America. Worryingly, though, its population is also small — and getting smaller — and is now in desperate need of protection, according to a chorus of conservation scientists.

In the hope of protecting the species, a contingent of conservation groups issued a notice to sue the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for failure to respond to a petition to list the creature under Endangered Species Act, without which they believe the rabbit w...