Distribution.—Known only from the central part of the Columbian Plateau.
Description.—The pigmy rabbit is a tiny species, differing from the cottontail in smaller size, paler, grayer color, shorter ears and smaller legs.
The pigmy rabbit is restricted to the Great Basin region. No subspecies has been described. It is rare and of local occurrence in Washington, having been recorded only from the central part of the Columbian Plateau. [Orr] (1940), who studied the species in California, found them only in stands of tall, dense sage (Artemisiae tridentata). It is a burrowing form, not straying far from its hole.
Cervus canadensis (Erxleben)
Elk or wapiti
Description.—The elk, next to the moose, is our largest deer. The legs of the elk are slender. The tail is a short, pointed stub a few inches long. The neck is thick in proportion to the head. Both males and females possess the canine teeth familiar as "elk tooth charms." Only the males possess antlers. These are huge, slender beams that curve up, out and back with the basal tine or "dog killer" and four to six points on each antler. The antlers are deciduous and are shed annually. The body is grayish or tan in color. The head, neck, chest and legs are rich, dark brown, strongly contrasting with the paler body. The distinctive rump patch is pale tan or white.
In the past the elk was found over most of the forested areas of Washington. Lumbering, agriculture and settlement as well as excessive hunting removed it from parts of eastern Washington and all except the most inaccessible parts of the lowlands of western Washington. Only in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains and the coastal strip between the Columbia River and the Olympic Mountains, did the elk survive in appreciable numbers. Conservationists and a more enlightened game policy began to protect the elk at the turn of the century. It was already too late to save the species in eastern Washington, where it seems never to have been truly abundant and where relatively open country afforded little protection from the high-powered rifle. In the dense, rugged forests of western Washington a sizable number remained on the Olympic Peninsula and these, under protection, increased to their present numbers. The dense, tangled forests of the southwestern coastal area and the western Cascades lack conditions suitable to support truly large elk herds. These areas probably now have as large an elk population as can safely be supported and fed.
The elk of eastern Washington had disappeared or nearly disappeared by 1910. The race originally occurring there was the Rocky Mountain form; it has been reintroduced from Montana and Wyoming into northeastern Washington and the Blue Mountains area. These plantings have not been very successful. Introduced in the eastern Cascades, however, the Rocky Mountain elk thrived and increased on what was probably once the peripheral range of the coastal elk.