Category

Attwater's Prairie Chicken

Once considered a common game bird with as many as a million spread across the Texas coastal prairie, the Attwater’s prairie chicken is now endangered due to overhunting, invasives and habitat loss.

Interviews

Narrator: Hannah BaileyTitle: Conservation BargainDuration: 00:04:41Date: December 16, 2020Hannah Bailey worked at the Houston Zoo for over two decades, ending as Curator of Birds and Animal Records. During her career there, she worked with bird care, incubation, nutrition, hand-rearing, exhibits, records and more. She was also heavily involved in the captive breeding of the Attwater's prairie chicken, and here explains the lasting value of the program, for the bird itself as well as grouse recovery, prairie conservation, and environmental education in general.Narrator: Jerry CaraviotisTitle: People and Prairie ChickensDuration: 00:02:35Date: December 19, 2020Jerry Caraviotis worked in the bird section of the Houston Zoo from 1988 through 2007. From 1994 on, he was heavily involved in the effort to captive-rear and release Attwater's prairie chickens. In this excerpt, he talks about the plight of the rare bird, and what it means for ecological trends in Texas and the greater world as human population growth and economic development continue.Narrator: Jerry CaraviotisTitle: Insect DeclineDuration: 00:03:06Date: December 19, 2020From 1988 through 2007, Jerry Caraviotis worked in the bird section of the Houston Zoo, helping with captive rearing and release of the Attwater's prairie chicken for over a decade. Here, he discusses the challenge to restoring the prairie chicken as insect populations, an important part of young chicks' diets, declined due to fire ant spread and pesticide use.Narrator: Ted EubanksTitle: Courting and DancingDuration: 00:00:46Date: April 15, 2002Ted Eubanks, a birder, wildlife photographer, and ecotourism consultant, describes the spectacular courtship dance of the Attwater's Prairie Chicken, a sight seldom seen now for the highly endangered bird.Narrator: Royce JurriesTitle: Prairies, Ants and RainsDuration: 00:02:40Date: January 21, 2021Royce Juries worked as a wildlife biologist at Texas Parks and Wildlife for close to four decades, involved with waterfowl, quail, alligators, whitetail deer, and the Attwater's prairie chicken. Here he recalls the prairie chicken surveys that he began in 1970 with his TPW colleague, Bill Brownlee. The counts showed the decline of the grouse (likely due to prairie loss, fire ant expansion, and heavy rain events) , leading to near extinction in the wild, and captive breeding and release efforts in the 1990s.Narrator: David MarrackTitle: Texas Coastal PrairieDuration: 00:02:14Date: October 22, 2003Dr. David Marrack, a former Houston physician, pathologist, and medical researcher, was also an accomplished birder. Here he tells about the challenge of restoring the endangered Attwater's Prairie Chicken to the coastal Texas plain, where its native prairie habitat is much diminished.Narrator: Mike MorrowTitle: Why Care?Duration: 00:04:32Date: January 8, 2021Mike Morrow served as a wildlife biologist at the Attwater's Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in Eagle Lake, Texas. He studied the prairie chicken for decades and worked on many efforts to restore it in the wild. Here he describes why it is important to care for such endangered animals, from mechanistic, moral, and theological approaches.Narrator: Mike MorrowTitle: PatienceDuration: 00:03:19Date: January 8, 2021Mike Morrow served as a wildlife biologist at the Attwater's Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge near Eagle Lake, Texas. He worked on the prairie chicken's recovery for over 35 years, and came to realize that its restoration requires our patience. The bird's decline took many years, and its return will be slow too, due in part to our incomplete knowledge of the many factors required.Narrator: Terry RossignolTitle: Storms and FloodsDuration: 00:03:36Date: January 23, 2021Terry Rossignol served as manager of the Attwater's Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge near Eagle Lake, Texas for over two decades, while also working as the bird's Recovery Team leader. Here he describes the dire effect on the prairie chicken from the 2016 Tax Day flood and the 2017 Hurricane Harvey rains. While the chicken was nearly wiped out, it showed amazing resilience, returning to counts in 2020 that had not been seen in a quarter century.Narrator: Nova SilvyTitle: TriageDuration: 00:01:57Date: January 15, 2021Dr. Nova Silvy is a Regents professor and senior faculty fellow in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management at Texas A&M University in College Station. He has been closely involved in the study of the Attwater's prairie chicken since the mid-1970s. Here he describes a quandary - should the Attwater's prairie chicken, which has faced repeated hurdles to its recovery, continue to be worked with? Or would the resources devoted to its restoration be better switched to another declining species, maybe a related one such as the lesser prairie chicken, which might have better prospects.Narrator: Kelley SnodgrassTitle: Birds in the WildDuration: 00:02:27Date: January 7, 2021Mr. Snodgrass is the executive director of the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center near Glen Rose, Texas. He has worked at the Center since 1984, as director of animal care, natural resources management, and in other capacities. Here he talks about the Center's captive breeding work with the Attwater's prairie chicken, and how fortunate they feel to be able to actually release their reared birds to the wild. In many cases, such as with the scimitar-horned oryx, endangered captive-bred animals may not have release opportunities for decades, and may see their wild cohorts go extinct before their own restoration to the open environment.