AttwatersPrairieChicken_BirdsintheWild_Snodgrass_Kelley_GlenRoseTX_7January2021_Reel4044.mp3

Kelley Snodgrass [00:00:00] I got to say that, that so many of the programs that we work with, so many of the species that we work with, you know, you don't get to see that full circle of effect, as you do with the Attwater prairie chickens.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:00:14] For example, we have a species, an antelope species, here called the scimitar-horned oryx, and we've had them since, oh, my gosh, early '80s, mid '80s.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:00:24] And during that time, they actually went extinct in the wild.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:00:28] And, and, you know, no hope for a reintroduction program, recovery program, any of that. They're from North Africa.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:00:36] And yet back in 2010, the UAE said we need to, we should, let's try to release scimitar-horned oryx.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:00:44] And they initiated a program, a funding source, provided the fundings to do just that. And they reached out to another organization, Sahara Conservation Fund, who reached out to several organizations - Smithsonian, Zoological Society of London, Fossil Rim. Anyway, we became involved in that program.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:01:06] And so that, now there are scimitar-horned oryx running around in the country of Chad, in the wild.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:01:12] And so, but those opportunities are so few and far between, so that, and even if they become available, it takes so much time to get there.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:01:21] With the Attwater Prairie chicken, our staff, our interns, the birds themselves, the other institutions that are involved in this, they can see, you know, starting in March, the eggs hitting the ground, the chicks hatching, the chicks being raised, and those chicks going to release by, what, July.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:01:42] So you get to see a means to the end and the end to the means in a very short period of time, and that is so rare in our world of, you know, working with these endangered species. But what a wonderful opportunity! Our interns that come here for that professional training are able to witness that, to see what all of their hours, their many hours of application of their time and effort in raising, you know, these, these birds, to be able to see that release and to know that that there are birds in the wild because of their effort.

Kelley Snodgrass [00:02:23] What a wonderful, wonderful opportunity.