ABSTRACT
Abstract. Lesser Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) are an iconic bird of the Southern Great Plains of the United States. Since the bird was first recognized as a separate species, habitat loss and fragmentation, first through agricultural expansion and then through energy development, have threatened the existence of this prairie grouse. Historically, grazing, fire, and drought created fragmentation and patches of grassland or native shrubland habitats with suitable structure for Lesser Prairie-Chickens, and the species was adapted to natural disturbance in prairie landscapes. However, suppression of natural disturbances and addition of novel anthropogenic disturbances have had negative impacts on their populations. In this chapter, we reviewed the literature on the impact of anthropogenic landscape change on populations of Lesser Prairie-Chickens. We then used a Geographic Information System to complete a preliminary analysis to evaluate
the hypothesis that Lesser Prairie-Chicken lek locations are negatively associated with anthropogenic structures. Results from the preliminary analysis indicate that lek presence is related to the percent of the landscape that is unimpacted by anthropogenic features at multiple spatial scales. Largest Patch Index was the only variable that measured landscape structure that was related to lek presence. More information is needed on the impact of anthropogenic features at the landscape scale on populations of Lesser Prairie-Chicken. In the meantime, conservation of the species will require collaborations at multiple scales and among different government agencies and conservation groups.
