Greater Prairie-Chicken
Common
Name: Greater
Prairie-chicken (GRPC)
Scientific
Name:
Tympanuchus
cupido
Global/Continental
Conservation Status: IUCN
2004 Red List – VU (Vulnerable)
National-level
Conservation Status:
NOT covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (upland game bird);
U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) - Endangered - Attwater's GRPC (T.
c. attwateri);
Canada
- Species at Risk Act (SARA) - Extirpated
Key
Reference(s):
BNA No. 36 (Schroeder and Robb 1993);
U.S.
Recovery Plan for Attwater's subspecies (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
1993); Canadian Recovery Plan (Hjertaas et al. 1993);
USGS
Northern
Prairie
Wildlife
Research
Center
document (Svedarsky et al. 2003)
Distribution:
Resident locally and in much reduced numbers from e North Dakota,
nw and c Minnesota, and n Wisconsin wouth to se Wyoming, ne Colorado,
Kansas (except sw), ne Oklahoma, c Missouri, and s Illinois; also in se
Texas. Formerly occupied (now
extirpated or nearly so) from e-c Alberta, c Saskatchewan, s Manitoba, and
s Ontario south, east of the Rocky Mountains, to e Texas, sw Louisiana,
e-c Arkansas, c Indiana, w Kentucky, and w Ohio; and in the east from
Massachusetts south to Maryland (AOU 1998).
Habitat
Associations:
Tall-grass prairie, occasionally feeding in adjacent cultivated
lands; formerly in eastern (fire-produced) grassland and blueberry barrens
(AOU 1998).
Source(s)
of Research/monitoring Needs (Number in ( ) is Physiographic Area number):
Dissected Till Plains (32); Osage Plains (33); Upper Great Lakes
Plain (16); Texas Avian Research Projects- TARP (Texas Partners in Flight
2001); PIF Monitoring Needs document (Partners in Flight Science Committee
2004)
PIF
Continental Plan Monitoring Needs Category: Mo2 (BBS trends have very
low precision)
RESEARCH/MONITORING NEEDS (source(s) of needs)
Monitoring
- Priority
monitoring action – Conduct species-specific surveys (PIF Monitoring
Needs doc)
- More
intensive survey work to better understand population trends &
patterns in abundance (Osage Plain)
Effects
of Management Practices
- Test
assumption that grassland Bird Conservation Areas can support source
populations of GRPC and other priority species (Dissected Till Plains)
- Effects
of annual burns across large landscapes on GRPC populations (Osage
Plains)
- Investigate
intensive rotational grazing for opportunities for grassland birds
including GRPC (Upper Great Lakes Plain)
Landscape
- Identify
large areas of grasslands as targets for conservation and restoration;
apply GIS models developed for grassland birds in other ecoregions
(Upper Great Lakes Plain)
Captive
Breeding/Reintroduction
- Determine
how to rank suitability of potential, but unoccupied, areas for
release of captive-reared Attwater’s GRPC; determine patch size,
vegetative characteristics, distance from other populations, soil
type, predator species present, avian predator roost-site
availability, etc.; test assumptions with experimental releases using
existing soft-release methods (TARP - Coastal Prairies)
[Link
to References]
[Link
to PIF Bird Conservation Plans]
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