TPW TV: Endangered Prairie Chickens
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
This is Passport to Texas
One of the most endangered birds in North America is the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken. Learn about efforts to help protect this species this month on the Texas parks and Wildlife TV series. Producer, Abe Moore.
57—There used to be close to a million of them in Texas and Louisiana; now they’re teetering around a hundred or so. I went down to the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge by Eagle Lake. It’s kind of their last stronghold right now.
Over the last 15, 20 years, there have been fewer than a hundred individuals in wild populations. And for a species that only lives on average two years, that’s a very bad place to be.
So I followed the biologist there for a breeding season, to see what it takes to keep the birds from going extinct. And they’re doing some hands on work building fences actually around the nest sites to protect the female.
The idea of this predator deterrent fence is to deflect predators away from the nest area so that hopefully they won’t find the nest and destroy it.
So, the team goes through some serious struggles this breeding season, and one of the things that happens is they have an ace up their sleeve to kind of help the Attwater Prairie Chicken from going extinct.
Abe says he won’t provide any clues to that ace. We’ll just have to tune in to find out. Check your local listings.
The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series; it’s funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuel. For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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