Deadly virus in rabbits threatens to upend some Western ecosystems
Palm Springs Desert Sun
Edie Harmon has hiked in the stark desert beauty of Imperial County s Jacumba Wilderness since the 1970s, but in all that time, she said she never came across a dead black-tailed jackrabbit.
Presumably, the predators that killed them also devoured their prey.
That was until a hike on Feb. 28, when she caught a glimpse of a jackrabbit lying freshly dead in a wash.
Curiously, there was no sign that it had been caught by a coyote, hit by a car or otherwise harmed. “We just hiked, and we just kept seeing dead jackrabbits, recounted Harmon, a local environmental advocate. By the end of the day, she and a hiking partner had come across 23 dead jackrabbits.