A coalition of environmental groups plan to sue over an impending decision to list pygmy rabbits under the Endangered Species Act.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Wild Earth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service last year to place the species under federal protections. The agency was supposed to make a decision in March, but has not.
Pygmy rabbits are the smallest rabbit species in the world, and live in sagebrush ecosystems across the Western US. They are threatened by habitat loss, fossil fuel extraction and grazing, as well as a lethal disease spreading across much of their range.
The formal notice, filed this week, gives Fish and Wildlife Service 60 days to respond before litigation begins.
