Passport to Texas

Baby Attwater’s Prairie Chickens At Fossil Rim

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This is Passport to Texas

We all need help sometimes. And in the case of the endangered Attwater’s Prairie Chicken, they’re getting it in the form of captive breeding programs, including one at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose.

Adding birds from the captive breeding program has allowed us to keep birds in the wild. Without the captive breeding program this species, undoubtedly, would have been extinct by now.

Biologists estimate there are fewer than 100 Attwater’s Prairie Chickens in existence today. Mike Morrow is a wildlife biologist at the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in Eagle Lake. The juvenile prairie chickens at Fossil rim are color banded and radio collared in preparation for release onto the refuge.

How many other species can we watch go extinct, before it starts making a difference the ability of the world to support us as a human species.

Juvenile birds take a long ride to the refuge and are kept in an outdoor enclosure until they’ve acclimated to their new habitat. After two weeks in their pen, they’re released onto the refuge.

Biologist Morrow says he knows not all the birds they release will survive, but those that do, represent the future. He says Texas Parks and Wildlife and partners will continue to build the population with wild birds. And that’s where he says we place the hope for the recovery of the species.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Attwater’s Prairie Chicken

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This is Passport to Texas

The most endangered bird in North America is a chicken. No, it’s not your ordinary farmyard fowl. It’s the extraordinary Attwater’s Prairie Chicken—a species unique to Texas coastal prairies. Yet, over the past two decades fewer than 100 individuals have been reported in the wild.

For a species that only lives on average two years—that’s a very bad place to be.

Mike Morrow is a wildlife biologist at the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in Eagle Lake. He works with biologist Rebecca Chisholm.

You know, they’re [prairie chickens] an endangered species all over the rest of the country and the world. But this one here, lives only in Texas.

The birds are part of our natural heritage. At the refuge, Morrow and Chisholm work together to give the Prairie Chicken a chance at survival, which includes building predator deterrent fences around nest sites.

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.

The fence doubles the chance of survival for the hens and chicks. And when there are fewer than 100 members in a population, you take those odds.

Working with—arguably the most endangered bird in North America—has its ups and downs. I mean, sometimes, it’s a little bit disappointing. Things don’t go quite as well as you want, but it’s also rewarding when things do. So I think everyone would agree that it’s worth it.

Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

San Marcos Salamander and Fountain Darter

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The Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan permits what’s necessary to ensure the survival of rare, threatened and endangered species that depend on the Aquifer and the San Marcos and Comal Rivers while allowing continued use of the resource by the rest of us.

There’s federal law requiring this, but it’s the right thing to do in terms of protecting the resource for all of us into the future.

Cindy Loeffler is water resources branch chief at Texas Parks and Wildlife and one of the architects of the protection plan. Convincing people to do the right thing – like modifying their water usage based on the needs of rare species – can be a hard sell.

The plan includes ongoing water conservation—especially during times of drought—removing invasive species, and declaring a portion of the San Marcos River a state scientific area that would make it illegal to uproot endangered Texas Wild Rice.

But Loeffler says these protected species are indicators of a healthy ecosystem – which benefits everyone.

By providing these protections for these species, that helps ensure the San Marcos river, the Comal River will keep flowing. Keeping these springs flowing is really at the heart and soul of the work done by the recovery implementation program. And so that benefits the species, of course, but also benefits people as well.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program…supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Whoopers in flight.

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A flock of 308 endangered whooping cranes lives in Texas from October through April.

06- We fully expect to see the first of our migrating whoopers come into Texas in mid-to-late October.

The birds migrate from their summer breeding ground in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada to their winter home at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas.
Texas Whooper Watch coordinator, Mark Klym, says the species has rebounded from a low of just 15 cranes in the 1940s to about 600 today worldwide.

21-There are also two other flocks in the US. One that migrates from Wisconsin to Florida, and a reintroduced flock in Louisiana. We really need at least one more flock before we can consider it relatively safe to start considering down-listing them. Or, we need a thousand birds in the Aransas to Wood Buffalo
National Park flock.

While the majority of Texas cranes spend the winter at the refuge, some end up in other parts of the state.

13-In recent years we’ve seen them moving up and down the coast, as well as inland–as far as Wichita Falls for the winter. So, it is possible to see whooping cranes during the winter almost anywhere in the eastern half of the state.

Be on the lookout for whoopers, and if you see them, add your observations to Texas Whooper Watch. Find details in the Texas Nature Tracker section of the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Lesser Prairie Chicken

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The Lesser Prairie Chicken has declined in Texas. Wildlife biologist Jeff Bonner says the reason: its historic range
has dwindled to almost nothing.

07-Here in Donley County they’re pretty sparse. And, that’s pretty much relative to the quality of the habitat that they have.

Landowners play a crucial role in the restoration of prairie chicken habitat, and hopefully saving the bird; Amarillo Cattleman and landowner, Jay O’Brien.

18- I don’t think you’ll find a cattleman who’s not very interested in the overall ecology of his ranch. That includes wildlife and improving wildlife habitat on his ranch as long as they see that nobody’s going to be dictating exactly how they should do their business.

Landowners may request and receive technical guidance from biologists like Gene Miller, about managing their property for a variety of wildlife.

12-The Hallmark of what we do is providing free, confidential, nonbinding assistance to private landowners. We go where we’re called, and we offer any level of assistance we’re asked to provide.

The future of the Lesser Prairie Chicken is in the hands of private landowners willing to create habitat to keep this iconic species on the landscape for generations to come.

View a segment called Chicken Land, about prairie chicken conservation, on the PBS Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series the week of June 14. The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.