Spring Habitat Requirements of Captive-Reared Attwater’s Prairie Chicken

During the summer of 1996, 50 radio-tagged, pen-reared Attwater’s prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri) were released on Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in a restoration effort to supplement a wild population. We evaluated fine-scale habitat use of pen-reared Attwater’s prairie chickens during the 1997 nesting season based on 4 variables: obstruction of vision, plant height, litter depth, and percentage of bare ground. Low obstruction of vision (mean = 1.5 dm), plant height (mean = 67.3 cm), and litter depth (mean = 2.7 cm) characterized preferred habitats. Bare ground averaged 16.5% at Attwater’s prairie chicken locations compared with 8.2% at random locations. Use locations differed from random locations with respect to visual obstruction (P 16.5%), the preferred habitat of pen-reared Attwater’s prairie chickens. The Rangeland Ecology & Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 2020Legacy DOIs that must be preserved: 10.2458/azu_rangelands_v58i3_morro