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Author: Reid Thomas Plumb Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is an endemic North American prairie grouse once widely distributed in the southwestern Great Plains. Recent population declines and continued threats to lesser prairie-chicken populations prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the species as "threatened" under the protection of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 in May 2014. The northern extent of the species range in Kansas and Colorado supports 2/3 of the remaining range-wide population of lesser prairie-chickens, but has thus far been relatively understudied. Concern for species viability has created a need to fill current knowledge gaps in lesser prairie-chicken ecology, provide more recent demographic information, and develop appropriate conservation actions. I evaluated female survival, movement, space use, and effects of anthropogenic features during the breeding seasons of 2013 and 2014. I captured and radio-tagged 201 females with satellite GPS (N = 114) and VHF (N = 82) transmitters within the three ecoregions of Kansas and Colorado. Mean daily movement varied by region, year, and breeding season period but the amount of space used was consistent between ecoregions and years. On average, females moved 1352 m ± 12 [SE] per day. Females moved the greatest distances during the lekking period of the breeding season with females moving 2074 m ± 36 per day. Females were most sedentary during the brooding period moving only 780 m ± 14 per day. Mean breeding season home range size was estimated to be 340 ha ± 27. The lekking period had the greatest amount of movement as a result of females visiting leks to find mates, copulate, and search for nest locations. Female's movements were reduced during the brooding period because of physical limitations of the brood mobility. Variation in movement between ecoregions was most likely a product of fragmentation as females moved 10-30% more in northwest Kansas compared to the study sites, which was characterized by northwest Kansas having the greatest degree of fragmentation. Survival varied by ecoregion with females in northwest Kansas having the lowest probability of surviving the 6-month breeding season compared to other ecoregions. Estimated 6-month breeding season survival during 2013 and 2014 was 0.455 (95% CI = 0.38 -- 0.53). Survival was lowest during the nesting period, which claimed 59.5% of all observed mortalities. Survival increased from 2013 to 2014 in northwest Kansas as grassland habitats recovered from extreme drought conditions in 2013. Drought was less severe in south-central Kansas and survival rates remained fairly consistent across years. Avian and mammalian predators caused 45.7% and 34.3% of breeding season mortalities, respectively. Other mortalities were either cause by snakes or were unknown (5.7%, 14.3%). Overhead cover may have been limited from drought conditions causing nesting females to be more visible to avian predators during incubation. When pooled across years and ecoregions, rump-mounted GPS transmitters did not adversely affect female survival when compared to commonly used necklace style VHF transmitter (VHF: 0.48 95% CI = 0.39 -- 0.58; GPS: 0.50 95% CI = 0.38 -- 0.64). Distance to distribution power lines and lek were significant predictors of female space use within their home range with females behaviorally avoiding distribution power lines and using space closer to leks. Space use decreased with increasing oil well density. Females avoided areas that had well densities of 23 wells/250 ha. Observed female locations were further from anthropogenic features but closer to leks on average than at random. Avoidance behavior of anthropogenic features may result in functional habitat loss and reduce the amount of suitable habitat available; compounding previously fragmented landscapes. Anthropogenic features may limit movement by acting as barriers on the landscape and potentially disrupt population connectivity. Furthermore, habitats selected for nesting and brooding may result in potential ecological traps because of reduce breeding success when impacted by increased occurrence and densities of anthropogenic features. Reduced breeding success can have significant negative impacts on population persistence. Average home range size across all ecoregions indicated that female lesser prairie-chickens need at least 340 ha of habitat to fulfill her life-history requirements during the breeding season. Brooding habitats need to be in close proximity (d"750 m) to nesting cover to reduce distance traversed by newly hatched broods. Reducing grazing pressure will ensure that sufficient vertical habitat structure is available during the nesting period and increase female survival; especially in times of drought. Mangers should restrict construction of anthropogenic features near or within suitable lesser prairie-chicken habitat with emphasis on distribution power lines. Well densities should not exceed 1 well/60 acres (11 wells/section) for a>10% probability of use. However, because the affect that density of wells has on demographic rates of lesser prairie-chickens has yet to be determined, a conservative approach where well densities in or adjacent to grassland patches should be minimized as much as possible is best.
Author: Reid Thomas Plumb Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is an endemic North American prairie grouse once widely distributed in the southwestern Great Plains. Recent population declines and continued threats to lesser prairie-chicken populations prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the species as "threatened" under the protection of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 in May 2014. The northern extent of the species range in Kansas and Colorado supports 2/3 of the remaining range-wide population of lesser prairie-chickens, but has thus far been relatively understudied. Concern for species viability has created a need to fill current knowledge gaps in lesser prairie-chicken ecology, provide more recent demographic information, and develop appropriate conservation actions. I evaluated female survival, movement, space use, and effects of anthropogenic features during the breeding seasons of 2013 and 2014. I captured and radio-tagged 201 females with satellite GPS (N = 114) and VHF (N = 82) transmitters within the three ecoregions of Kansas and Colorado. Mean daily movement varied by region, year, and breeding season period but the amount of space used was consistent between ecoregions and years. On average, females moved 1352 m ± 12 [SE] per day. Females moved the greatest distances during the lekking period of the breeding season with females moving 2074 m ± 36 per day. Females were most sedentary during the brooding period moving only 780 m ± 14 per day. Mean breeding season home range size was estimated to be 340 ha ± 27. The lekking period had the greatest amount of movement as a result of females visiting leks to find mates, copulate, and search for nest locations. Female's movements were reduced during the brooding period because of physical limitations of the brood mobility. Variation in movement between ecoregions was most likely a product of fragmentation as females moved 10-30% more in northwest Kansas compared to the study sites, which was characterized by northwest Kansas having the greatest degree of fragmentation. Survival varied by ecoregion with females in northwest Kansas having the lowest probability of surviving the 6-month breeding season compared to other ecoregions. Estimated 6-month breeding season survival during 2013 and 2014 was 0.455 (95% CI = 0.38 -- 0.53). Survival was lowest during the nesting period, which claimed 59.5% of all observed mortalities. Survival increased from 2013 to 2014 in northwest Kansas as grassland habitats recovered from extreme drought conditions in 2013. Drought was less severe in south-central Kansas and survival rates remained fairly consistent across years. Avian and mammalian predators caused 45.7% and 34.3% of breeding season mortalities, respectively. Other mortalities were either cause by snakes or were unknown (5.7%, 14.3%). Overhead cover may have been limited from drought conditions causing nesting females to be more visible to avian predators during incubation. When pooled across years and ecoregions, rump-mounted GPS transmitters did not adversely affect female survival when compared to commonly used necklace style VHF transmitter (VHF: 0.48 95% CI = 0.39 -- 0.58; GPS: 0.50 95% CI = 0.38 -- 0.64). Distance to distribution power lines and lek were significant predictors of female space use within their home range with females behaviorally avoiding distribution power lines and using space closer to leks. Space use decreased with increasing oil well density. Females avoided areas that had well densities of 23 wells/250 ha. Observed female locations were further from anthropogenic features but closer to leks on average than at random. Avoidance behavior of anthropogenic features may result in functional habitat loss and reduce the amount of suitable habitat available; compounding previously fragmented landscapes. Anthropogenic features may limit movement by acting as barriers on the landscape and potentially disrupt population connectivity. Furthermore, habitats selected for nesting and brooding may result in potential ecological traps because of reduce breeding success when impacted by increased occurrence and densities of anthropogenic features. Reduced breeding success can have significant negative impacts on population persistence. Average home range size across all ecoregions indicated that female lesser prairie-chickens need at least 340 ha of habitat to fulfill her life-history requirements during the breeding season. Brooding habitats need to be in close proximity (d"750 m) to nesting cover to reduce distance traversed by newly hatched broods. Reducing grazing pressure will ensure that sufficient vertical habitat structure is available during the nesting period and increase female survival; especially in times of drought. Mangers should restrict construction of anthropogenic features near or within suitable lesser prairie-chicken habitat with emphasis on distribution power lines. Well densities should not exceed 1 well/60 acres (11 wells/section) for a>10% probability of use. However, because the affect that density of wells has on demographic rates of lesser prairie-chickens has yet to be determined, a conservative approach where well densities in or adjacent to grassland patches should be minimized as much as possible is best.
Author: David A. Haukos Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 1482240238 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 376
Book Description
Shortlisted for the 2018 TWS Wildlife Publication Awards in the edited book categoryLesser Prairie-Chickens have experienced substantial declines in terms of population and the extent of area that they occupy. While they are an elusive species, making it difficult at times to monitor them, current evidence indicates that they have been persistently
Author: Elisabeth Caroline Teige Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Translocation is defined as the deliberate movement of organisms from one site to another where the main objective is a conservation benefit. Translocations are used frequently as a management tool to restore or augment wildlife populations but generally have varying degrees of success. The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is found in the southwestern Great Plains of the United States and currently occurs in four distinct ecoregions (Short-Grass Prairie/CRP Mosaic, Mixed-Grass Prairie, Sand Sagebrush Prairie, and Sand Shinnery Oak Prairie) across five states (Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, USA). Recent estimates suggest the lesser prairie-chicken currently occupies only 15% of their estimated historical range. Within the current occupied range, lesser prairie-chicken populations have been experiencing moderate to severe population declines. Since a contemporary peak of an estimated 150,000 birds in the mid-1980s, lesser prairie-chicken populations have declined to an estimated abundance of 34,408 in 2020. The largest contemporary decline in population abundance and occupied range is occurring in the Sand Sagebrush Prairie Ecoregion. Historically, the Sand Sagebrush Prairie Ecoregion was the epicenter of the lesser prairie-chicken population despite a large area of vegetation in the ecoregion being decimated during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. In 2020, only 171 birds were estimated for the ecoregion. In response to the extreme population decline and elevated extinction risk for the lesser prairie-chicken population in the Sand Sagebrush Prairie Ecoregion, myself, along with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and U.S. Forest Service translocated lesser prairie-chickens from the Short-Grass Prairie/CRP Mosaic Ecoregion in northwest Kansas, where lesser prairie-chickens are currently most abundant, to release sites in sand sagebrush prairie landscapes on the U.S. Forest Service, Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands in southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado, respectively. I captured, marked, translocated, and monitored 411 lesser prairie chickens during spring 2016-2019 to understand how translocation affects demographic rates, space use, and habitat selection for assessing translocation as a conservation tool for this declining prairie-grouse. My objectives were to estimate lek counts, nest success, reproductive success, adult survival, home range establishment and land cover composition, and selection of habitat vegetation characteristics at local and broad scales to assess lesser prairie-chickens response to translocation in a novel landscape. Within two weeks of release, 22.8% of birds either died or were never located. I used known-fate and nest survival models in Program MARK to determine adult survival and nest success of lesser prairie-chickens. I estimated breeding season survival for both males and females to be 0.44 ± 0.02 (SE) and nest success as 0.37 ± 0.04 (SE) but with a declining trend for the entire study period (2017-2020). Overall, vital rates were average to low and male high counts on established lek started to decline in 2021, two years following active translocation. Habitat availability in a novel environment may become an increasing concern as translocated lesser prairie-chickens have consistently larger home ranges than their native counterparts. Home ranges of translocated birds was comprised of greater area of Conservation Reserve Program land than any other cover type on the landscape. Lastly, on a local scale (300 m), I found little selection for vegetation at used locations, but lesser prairie-chickens used thicker and taller cover for nest sites. This vegetation use was expected and conveys the importance of the vegetation structure needed at a translocation release site. My results highlight the importance of land management conservation and its role in the conservation of lesser prairie-chicken populations. The translocation may have some short-term success but current vital rates of lesser prairie chickens may not be enough to overcome inherent limiting factors of the ecoregion for the population to become self-sustaining and the translocation to be deemed a long-term success.
Author: Daniel S. Sullins Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is 1 of 3 prairie-grouse species in North America. Prairie-grouse have undergone local or widespread declines due to a loss of habitat through conversion to row crop agriculture, anthropogenic development, and alteration of ecological drivers that maintain quality grasslands. For lesser prairie-chickens, habitat loss and declines were deemed significant for listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. Despite a judge vacating the listing decision in 2015, the lesser prairie-chicken remains a species of concern. Conservation plans are currently being implemented and developed. To maximize the effectiveness of efforts, knowledge of the distribution of lesser prairie-chickens, regional demography, foods used during critical life-stages, and where to prioritize management is needed. To guide future conservation efforts with empirical evidence, I captured, marked with transmitters, and monitored female lesser prairie-chickens in Kansas and Colorado during 2013-2016 (n =307). I used location data to predict the distribution of habitat. Encounter data from individuals were used to estimate vital rates and integrated into a matrix population model to estimate population growth rates ([lambda]). The matrix model was then decomposed to identify life-stages that exert the greatest influence on [lambda] and vital rate contributions to differences in [lambda] among sites. After assessing demography, I examined the diet of adults and chicks during critical brood rearing and winter periods using a fecal DNA metabarcoding approach. Overall, potential habitat appears to compromise ~30% of the presumed lesser prairie-chicken range in Kansas with most habitat in the Mixed-Grass Prairie Ecoregion. Within occupied sites, populations were most sensitive to factors during the first year of life (chick and juvenile survival), however, the persistence of populations through drought may rely on adult survival. Among regional populations, breeding season, nest, and nonbreeding season survival rates contributed most to differences in [lambda] among sites, breeding season survival contributed to differences in [lambda] among more and less fragmented sites. During critical life-stages, diets were comprised of arthropod and plant foods. Among 80 readable fecal samples, 35% of the sequences were likely from Lepidoptera, 26% from Orthoptera, 14% from Araneae, and 13% from Hemiptera. Plant sequences from 137 fecal samples were comprised of genera similar to Ambrosia (27%) Latuca or Taraxacum (10%), Medicago (6%), and Triticum (5%). Among cover types, lesser prairie-chickens using native grasslands consumed a greater diversity of foods. Last, promising conservation options include the conversion of cropland to grassland through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and tree removal in mixed-grass prairie landscapes. Lesser prairie-chickens mostly used CRP during nesting and the nonbreeding season, during drier periods, and in drier portions of their distribution. Strategic CRP sign-up and tree removal could recover>60,000 ha and~100,000 ha of habitat respectively. In summary, conservation that targets management in areas within broad scale habitat constraints predicted will be most beneficial. In areas occupied by lesser prairie-chickens, management that increases brood survival in large grasslands having optimal nesting structure will elicit the strongest influence on population growth and will likely be the most resilient to stochastic drought-related effects.
Author: Christian Andrew Hagen Publisher: ISBN: Category : Birds Languages : en Pages : 226
Book Description
Lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) habitat and populations have been reduced range-wide by more than 90% since the turn of [the] 20th Century. Population indices in Kansas reflected the range-wide trends. The rate of habitat loss slowed considerably starting in the 1980s, but populations have continued to decline in the state. To aid in the conservation of this "warranted but precluded" threatened species, more information is needed on the basic and applied population ecology of this prairie grouse. The present research was initiated to collect field data for 3-years and synthesize 6-years of data from Federal Aid projects in southwestern Kansas.
Author: Liam Akerlof Berigan Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) populations in the Sand Sagebrush Prairie Ecoregion have reached historic lows in the last decade. Former core areas of the ecoregion, such as the U.S. Forest Service Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands in southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado, have reached population densities so low that populations will not be able to recover without a new source of birds. In an attempt to recolonize previously occupied areas in the region, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism translocated 411 lesser prairie-chickens to the National Grasslands between fall 2016 and spring 2019. For a translocation project to be successful, translocated birds need to stay near the release site, find habitat that meets their survival requirements, and successfully reproduce. I assessed the success of the translocation project to determine which of these requirements were met following release to meet the goal of increasing lesser prairie-chicken density on the National Grasslands and define potential obstacles for future translocation projects. I estimated nest success of lesser prairie-chickens translocated to the National Grasslands using Program MARK and determined those factors important in predicting nest success. I found that the number of years that had elapsed since the bird's release was the best predictor of its nesting success in any given year. This fits with existing literature on grouse translocations, which state that translocation effects dissipate in years following release. Unfortunately, only 10.3% of translocated birds survived into the second year to take advantage of the increased nest success rate. My analysis of lesser prairie-chicken movement after release showed extensive dispersal away from the release site, with 99% of birds undergoing a dispersal movement >5 km from the release site. I conducted a behavioral change point analysis on translocated birds as they dispersed to determine where they settled down and how long their dispersal lasted. Birds moved an average of 144 km during their 1-2 month dispersal movement following release. Despite the presence of leks and habitat at the release sites, 69% of released birds settled >5 km from their release site after their movements. These results indicate that dispersal is an innate response to translocation, and release site placement will not be sufficient to minimize the dispersal movement.
Author: Joseph Mark Lautenbach Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is a species of prairie grouse native to the southwest Great Plains. Population declines and threats to populations of lesser prairie-chickens led U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the species as "threatened" under the protection of the Endangered Species Act in May 2014. Lesser prairie-chickens are found within three distinct ecoregions of Kansas and Colorado and portions of the species' range are affected by tree encroachment into grasslands. The effect of trees on lesser prairie-chickens is poorly understood. I evaluated habitat selection and reproductive success and across the northern portion of the species' range. I captured female lesser prairie-chickens within the three different ecoregions in Kansas and Colorado to track nest and brood survival and measure nest and brood habitat. My findings show that there are regional and annual variations in nest and brood survival. Mean nest survival during 2013 and 2014 was estimated to be 0.388 (95% CI = 0.343 - 0.433) for a 35-day exposure period. Brood survival during 2013 and 2014 was estimated to be 0.316 (95% CI = 0.184 - 0.457) for 56 days. Chick survival was the lowest during the first week of life and is probably a limiting factor for population growth. Chick and brood survival decreased as Julian hatch date increased. Across the northern portion of the species' range, females consistently select visual obstruction between 2-3 dm. Vegetation at the nest changes between regions and years to reflect environmental and regional conditions. Broods consistently selected habitats with greater percent cover of forbs than was expected at random across all study sites. Broods also selected against areas of bare ground. The threshold of lesser prairie-chicken use was 2 trees/ha throughout the year. No nests were located within areas with greater densities. Lesser prairie-chickens had a greater probability of use at greater distances from trees and at lower tree densities. To provide adequate nesting habitat managers should provide 2-3 dm of visual obstruction. Providing forb cover with visual obstruction between 2.5-5 dm near nesting habitat should provide adequate habitat for broods. Removing trees in core habitats and expand removal efforts outward should expand potential habitat for lesser prairie-chickens.
Author: David A. Spencer Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is a prairie grouse of conservation concern in the Southern Great Plains. In response to declining population numbers and ongoing threats to its habitat, the Lesser Prairie-Chicken was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in May 2014. In western Kansas, the Lesser Prairie-Chicken occupies the Sand Sagebrush Prairie, Mixed-grass Prairie, and Short-grass/CRP Mosaic Ecoregions. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the overall range and population has declined by 92% and 97% respectively. Much of this decline is attributed to the loss and fragmentation of native grasslands throughout the Lesser Prairie-Chicken range. Whereas much of the loss and degradation of native grassland have been attributed to anthropogenic activities such as conversion of grassland to cropland and energy exploration, federal legislation since the 1980s to convert cropland on highly erodible soils to perennial grasses through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) may curtail or reverse these trends. My objective was to document changes in the areal extent and connectivity of grasslands in the identified Lesser Prairie-Chicken range in Kansas from the 1950s to 2013 using remotely sensed data. I hypothesized that the total amount of grassland decreased between the 1950's and 2013 because of an increase in agricultural practices, but predicted an increase of grassland between 1985 and 2013 in response to the CRP. To document changes in grassland, land cover maps were generated through spectral classification of LANDSAT images and visual analysis of aerial photographs from the Army Map Service and USDA Farm Service Agency. Landscape composition and configuration were assessed using FRAGSTATS to compute a variety of landscape metrics measuring changes in the amount of grassland present as well as changes in the size and configuration of grassland patches. Since 1985, the amount of grassland in the Lesser Prairie-Chicken range in Kansas has increased by 210,9963.3 ha, a rise of 11.9%, while the mean patch size and area-weighted mean patch size of grassland increased 18.2% and 23.0% respectively, indicating grassland has become more connected during this time in response to the CRP. Prior to the implementation of CRP, the amount of grassland had been decreasing since 1950, as 66,722.0 ha of grassland was converted to croplands. The loss of grassland had a considerable effect on the patch size of grasslands, as mean patch size and area-weighted mean patch size decreased by 8.8% and 11.1% respectively. The primary driver of grassland loss between 1950 and 1985 was the emergence of center pivot irrigation, which had its greatest impact in western and southwestern parts of the range in Kansas. In particular, while the amount of grassland in Range 5, a region of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken range found in southwest Kansas, has increased overall since the 1950s by 4.7%, the area-weighted mean patch size has decreased by 53.0% in response to center pivot irrigation fragmenting the landscape. While the CRP has been successful in increasing and connecting grassland throughout the Lesser Prairie-Chicken range to offset the loss of grassland since the 1950s, continuation of the CRP faces an uncertain future in the face of rising commodity prices, energy development, and reduction in program scope leaving open the possibility that these areas that have created habitat for Lesser Prairie-Chickens could be lost. As time progresses, a reduction in the scope of the CRP would reduce the amount of habitat available to Lesser Prairie-Chickens, threatening the persistence of their population.
Author: Carly S. Hildebrant Aulicky Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is a lek-breeding prairie-grouse of the Southern Great Plains. The lesser prairie-chicken range spans four ecoregions with an east-west precipitation gradient and is subject to severe droughts on a 5-10 year cycle. The influence of the range-wide precipitation gradient and severe drought cycle on lesser prairie-chicken morphology is unknown and a range-wide morphometric compilation has never been assembled. The lesser prairie-chicken population booms and busts in response to drought and estimates of population trends are made from counts of displaying males on leks. Despite the conservation importance of leks, there are many untested assumptions about how leks form on the landscape and what factors determine their persistence into subsequent breeding seasons. My dissertation seeks to fill these knowledge gaps, by (1) assembling a range-wide synthesis of lesser prairie-chicken morphometrics data, (2) determining severe weather influences on morphometric traits, (3) test the hotspot hypothesis as an explanation for lek formation, (4) determine factors that influence lek persistence and (5) evaluate lek formation and persistence findings in translocated population that has no existing lek complex. I assembled a range-wide data set of (n = 2,048) lesser prairie-chicken morphometrics from the period of 1986 to 2019 and compared among ecoregions and weather conditions based on the Palmer Drought Severity Index. Lesser prairie-chicken morphometric traits are largest in the Short-Grass and Sand Shinnery Oak Prairies and smaller in in the Mixed-Grass and Sand Sagebrush Prairies. Morphometric changes following years of extreme weather are universal across ecoregions, where adult female traits remain unaffected and male sexually selected traits increase in size after extreme weather. Incredibly, lesser prairie-chicken body fat during spring lekking is tightly constrained by sex with males exhibiting 2-3% body fat, whereas females exhibited 4-8% across all weather conditions. I tested the hotspot hypothesis, which posits that leks should form in areas where males are most likely to encounter females, and anthropogenic and female movement data as determinants of lek persistence in the Short-Grass Prairie/CRP Mosaic and Mixed-Grass Prairie ecoregions of Kansas with 143 GSP-backpacked females from 2013-2016 and 53 individual leks. As a lek-breeding species, lesser prairie-chicken females are solely responsible for incubating their nest and raising broods, which creates a sexually driven difference in space and habitat use that is reflected in both the formation and persistence of leks on the landscape. I found that lesser prairie-chicken lek dynamics are driven by female habitat constraints, where increased female space use and number of nest sites starting at a 5 km scale (F5,78 = 2.50, P = 0.04) determines the number of males displaying at leks and concentrations of female spatial use determines where new leks form on the landscape. I then compared patterns of established lek complexes to the dynamics of lek formation and persistence in the translocation of lesser prairie-chickens (n = 411) to the Sand Sagebrush Prairie Ecoregion in 2016-2019. The formation and persistence of leks by translocated birds is also driven by female space utilization, where the location of newly formed leks comprised of translocated birds can be explained by female nesting attempts and space use and the persistence and stability of translocation leks can be explained by multiyear nesting efforts by females starting at a 5 km buffer (F4,21 = 6.57, P = 0.01). My research offers an explanation for the spatial-temporal dynamics of lek formation and persistence on the landscape and provides means to use morphometrics to evaluate weather stressors and resource allocation in lesser prairie-chickens.
Author: John Daniel Kraft Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
In the southern Great Plains, the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus; hereafter LEPC), an obligate grassland species, has experienced significant population declines and range contractions with subsequent conservation concern. Management actions often use land cover types to make inference about habitat quality. Relatively little information is available related to grazed rangelands to guide conservation. The influences of land cover types and livestock grazing on LEPC habitat selection have not been researched extensively in western Kansas. I evaluated the influence of land cover types and grazing management on vegetation characteristics, habitat selection, and nest/adult survival of LEPC in western Kansas. Females were captured and radio-marked to monitor habitat use, nest success, and adult survival. Grazing and vegetation data were collected via producer correspondence and vegetation surveys, respectively. Vegetation composition and structure differed across land cover types, which can be used to make inferences about LEPC habitat quality. Habitat selection analyses corroborated the importance of breeding habitat in close proximity to leks (3 km) and identified land cover types selected for nesting (Conservation Reserve Program, Limy Upland, Saline Subirrigated) and brooding (Conservation Reserve Program, Red Clay Prairie, Sands, Sandy Lowland). Conservation Reserve Program patches positioned near rangelands contributed to LEPC reproductive success in northwest Kansas. In grazed lands, LEPC selected habitat close to leks (3 km) and large pastures (400 ha), exhibiting low-moderate stocking densities (
Author: Reid Thomas Plumb
Author: Reid Thomas Plumb
Author: David A. Haukos
Author: Elisabeth Caroline Teige
Author: Daniel S. Sullins
Author: Christian Andrew Hagen
Author: Liam Akerlof Berigan
Author: Joseph Mark Lautenbach
Author: David A. Spencer
Author: Carly S. Hildebrant Aulicky
Author: John Daniel Kraft