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On March 30, 2006, the last pure-bred male Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit died in the Oregon Zoo in Portland. As of this writing, the total population of pure-breds stands at two (both females).

Pygmies are the smallest of all rabbits, with adults measuring less than 12 inches long, and weighing between 0.5 to 1.2 pounds. The rabbits are gray to brown in color. They have no visible tail and small, rounded ears. Pygmy rabbits are one of only two species in North America that dig underground burrows; these burrows, in loose, sandy soil, usually have at least three entrances with narrow 3-inch openings. The rabbits are unusual in that they can digest sagebrush. Sage comprises 99% of the pygmies' winter diet, and 60-70% in the summer, when the rabbits add bunch-grass to the menu.

Historically, several genetically isolated lines of pygmy rabbits have lived throughout most of the semi-arid lands of the American West. Over the past century, pygmy rabbit populations have crashed across their range due to a catastrophic combination of factors. They have lost habitat to irrigated farming, intensive livestock grazing, mining, and oil and natural gas wells. They also suffer losses from range fires, and from off-road vehicles that can crush the animals in their burrows. On top of all this, the bite-sized rabbits still face predation from coyotes, hawks, owls, golden eagles, and other animals.

The Columbia Basin variant of the pygmy rabbit is the first population known to have gone extinct in the wild. In a desperate attempt to save the sub-species, wildlife officials live-trapped the last 16 surviving Columbia Basin Pygmies from a remote patch of sagebrush scrub in Douglas County, Washington in 2001. After capture, the tiny rabbits were sent to the Oregon Zoo, Washington State University in Pullman, and Northwest Trek near Eatonville, Washington, where they became the subject of an intense captive-breeding program.

Ely, the male who died in 2006, was the last of the original 16; the two remaining pure-bred females are off-spring of the captured rabbits. Due to the extreme scarcity and lack of genetic variation in the Columbia Basin rabbits, scientists have been cross-breeding them with the closely-related Idaho Pygmy Rabbit. The goal is to create rabbits that have "at least 75 percent Columbia Basin ancestry," according to Chris Warren, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in charge of the program. Of the 88 animals in the program, 13 females meet this standard.

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