Common
Name: Lesser Prairie-chicken (LEPC)
Scientific
Name:
Tympanuchus pallidicinctus
Global/Continental
Conservation Status: IUCN
2004 Red List – VU (Vulnerable)
National-level
Conservation Status:
U.S.
– Endangered Species Act – candidate species; NOT covered by the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act
Key
Reference(s):
BNA No. 364 (Giesen 1998); Northern
Prairie
Wildlife
Research
Center
Document (Jamison et al. 2002)
Distribution:
Resident locally & in reduced numbers from se Colorado, s-c
Kansas, and w Oklahoma to extreme se New Mexico and n Texas (Panhandle),
formerly north to sw Nebraska (AOU 1998)
Habitat
Associations:
Dry short-grass prairie, often interspersed with shrubs and short
trees, regularly feeding in adjacent cultivated fields (AOU 1998)
Source(s)
of Research/monitoring Needs: New
Mexico PIF Bird Conservation Plan; Texas Avian Research Projects –TARP
(Texas Partners in Flight 2001); BNA No. 364 (Giesen 1998); PIF
Monitoring Needs document (Partners in Flight Science Committee 2004)
PIF
Continental Plan Monitoring Needs Category: **
(Long-term population trend monitoring considered adequate, but some
issues (e.g., bias) may not be accounted for)
RESEARCH/MONITORING NEEDS (source(s) of needs)
Monitoring
- Priority
monitoring action – NOTE: Current surveys provide acceptable data
at the continental level (PIF Monitoring Needs doc)
- Second
priority monitoring action – Maintain current species-specific
surveys (PIF Monitoring Needs doc)
- More
information on LEPC population status/trends - Determine population status/trends for LEPC (
New Mexico
); What is the status of LEPC? Survey
needed (TARP - Rolling Red Plains & Pecos and Staked Plains)
- Information
on genetic variability, dispersal, population and meta-population
dynamics, and minimum patch size to ensure viability of LEPC (BNA)
Habitat Needs/Ecology/Life History
- Documentation
of the percentage of males that obtain territories on leks & of
spring sex ratios (critical for population size and trend
estimation) (BNA)
Effects of Management Practices
- Effects
of tebuthiuron (shrub control) on LEPC and associated species (
New Mexico
)
- Determine,
in a spatial sense, (a) why LEPC abundance declined since the late
1980s, (b) whether early Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
implementation played a part in decline, (c) whether current CRP
practices are more beneficial, and (d) how LEPCs use agricultural
lands in areas where they still do (e.g., crop types, patch sizes,
nearness to native prairie, juxtaposition of patches, etc.) (TARP -
Rolling Red Plains &
Pecos
and Staked Plains)
- Is
hunting of LEPC still justified? (TARP - Rolling Red Plains)
- Effects
of land management practices (grazing, brush control, & other
range restoration) on productivity, survival, nutrition, energetics,
& seasonal habitat preferences (BNA)
Invasives/Exotics/Disease/Parasites/Contaminants
- See
“Effects of Management Practices”
Captive Breeding/Reintroduction
- Evaluate
translocation or other methods for restoring extirpated populations
of LEPC (BNA)
Genetics/Taxonomy/Systematics
- See
“Distribution of populations/habitat…”
[Link
to References]
[Link
to PIF Bird Conservation Plans]
