Attwater's Prairie-Chicken

The Most Endangered Grouse in North America

Once, there were about a million Attwater’s prairie-chickens (APC)

to be found on six-million acres of coastal prairie extending along the

Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi, Texas, north to the Bayou Teche area

in Louisiana and inland some 75 miles.

Between land use changes including rice production, overgrazing,

fire suppression, urbanization and industrialization, much of that

prairie, some estimates as high as 98% of it, has disappeared.

While 1 – 2% of the original prairie may still exist, much of that is

fragmented as small pockets that are useless for this bird. This

isolation onto ever smaller pockets of land, creates a situation

where predators of the prairie-chickens thrive as the useable

habitat decreases.

By 1919, the Attwater’s prairie-chicken was extirpated from

Louisiana. Estimates in 1937 showed only about 8,700 individuals

left in Texas – less than 1% of the population. This signaled the

end of hunting for this once popular and common game bird. The

bird was listed as endangered in 1967 with an estimated population

of 1,070 birds – 0.1% of the historic population. In 1973 the

Endangered Species Act provided immediate protection for the

seriously declining species. A devastating series of droughts and

floods between 1980 and 1994 seriously impacted the birds such

that by 1994 less than 160 individuals could be found in the wild.

By 2003, fewer than 60 birds remained in two fragments of habitat

located in Galveston and Colorado counties.

So few birds are left today that a captive breeding program offers

the only hope for saving this species. The first chicks produced

through this program hatched at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center near

Glen Rose, Texas, in 1992. Now, Texas A&M University, the

Houston Zoo, Fossil Rim, the San Antonio Zoo, Sea World of Texas,

Caldwell Zoo, and the Abilene Zoo all take part in raising birds

destined to return to the wild. A safe harbor agreement between

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the administering

organizations has helped private landowners be a part of the

conservation effort to save the APC. Through the agreement,

landowners are able to be involved in restoring and maintaining

coastal prairie habitat with cost share and incentives, on their

own land.

Since 1995, 1,471 APCs have been released from captivity back

into the wild. For the first time, in late 2007, 55 juvenile APCs

arrived from captive breeding facilities and were released into the

wild onto private ranch land in Goliad County in South Texas.

This was followed by the release of over 130 birds in 2008 and

additional releases are planned for 2009. The ranch lies within a

pristine native prairie kept intact by family since the mid-1800s and

is part of the 60,000-acre Refugio-Goliad Prairie, which spans half

a dozen family ranches. The Refugio-Goliad Prairie is the largest

remaining intact expanseof tall-grass coastal prairie on the Gulf

Coast and is historical habitat for APCs which were last seen in the

region in the mid-1990s.

This project is a partnership between The Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus, Ltd. (STCP), the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPW), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Coastal Prairie Coalition of the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, Papalote Land and Cattle Company (the landowner), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the APC captive-rearing facilities.

STCP’s role in this recovery effort is to evaluate the releases of the pen-reared APCs and monitor their movements, dispersal and survival. This involves daily monitoring and radio-tracking throughout the year.

The Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken Recovery Plan was written to prevent this species from extinction, and ultimately, to remove it from the endangered species list. The long-term goal is to establish a self-sustaining wild population of 5,000 birds in three geographically separate, viable populations within its’ historical range.

An updated and revised plan has recently been prepared by the APC Recovery Team that will focus on increasing the number of captive-produced young available for release into the wild (on public and private lands) as well as genetics, the ability of hens to raise broods in the wild, habitat management, diseases and nutrition. To accomplish these goals, further partnerships will be needed between federal and state wildlife agencies, private landowners, grazing organizations and conservation organizations.

NOTE: Above Excerpted in whole and in part from Texas Parks & Wildlife and

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken brochures and web sites.

Photo credit: Gary Halvorson, USFWS

A controlled burn to maintain healthy grasslands at the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in Texas

Mike Morrow of the USFWS examines a captive-produced Attwater’s prairie-chicken prior to release.

STCP Research Fellow Aaron Pratt points out an Attwater’s prairie- chicken nest in the midst of a protective wire enclosure.