Breeding Ecology of Greater Prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) in Relation to Prairie Landscape Configuration

Ryan, Mark R.; Burger, L. Wes; Jones, David P.H.; Wywialowski, Alice P.

doi:10.1674/0003-0031(1998)140[0111:beogpc]2.0.co;2

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Avoidance of these landscape features may be related to patterns of habitat fragmentation. Fragmentation of native prairie by cropland and anthropogenic features such as roads, power lines, fences, and towers has been linked to elevated mortality rates and shifts in life-history strategies in Greater and Lesser Prairie-Chickens, leaving these populations more vulnerable to local extinction (Ryan et al 1998, Patten et al 2005, McNew et al 2012.…”

Section: Spatial Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Space use by female Greater Prairie‐Chickens in response to wind energy development

et al. 2014

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Abstract. Wind energy development is targeted to meet 20% of U.S. energy demand by 2030. In Kansas, optimal sites for wind energy development often overlap with preferred habitats of Greater PrairieChickens (Tympanuchus cupido), a lek-mating species of prairie grouse with declining populations. Our goal was to use movement data from radio telemetry to investigate patterns and drivers of seasonal space use by female prairie-chickens during pre-and post-construction periods at a wind energy facility in northcentral Kansas. We developed individual and population level resource utilization functions (RUFs) for four time periods: the 6-month breeding and nonbreeding seasons during the pre-construction stage (2007)(2008); n ¼ 28 and 14 females), and the same two seasons during a post-construction period (2009)(2010)(2011); n ¼ 102 and 37). RUFs relate non-uniform space use within a home range to landscape metrics in a multiple regression framework. We selected ten predictor variables that described land cover, habitat patchiness, anthropogenic disturbance, and social behavior of prairie-chickens. We documented two behavioral responses of females to wind energy development during the breeding season: (1) mean home range size increased approximately two-fold, and (2) space use had a positive relationship with distance to turbine, which indicated female avoidance of wind turbines. A parallel study of demographic rates in our study population found no negative effects of wind energy development on prairie-chicken fecundity or survival, but persistent avoidance of wind energy development could result in the local extirpation of prairie-chicken populations at our study site. Our primary ecological finding was that distance to lek was the strongest predictor of space use during all treatment periods, with relatively high use of areas at short distances from leks in 79% of female home ranges. Thus, lek site surveys should be effective for identifying prairie grouse habitat preferences and monitoring population dynamics when more intensive demographic studies are not feasible. Our study is the first application of resource utilization function techniques to a wildlife population in response to energy development, and our results provide new quantitative insights into the spatial ecology of an upland gamebird of conservation concern.

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Section: Spatial Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Space use by female Greater Prairie‐Chickens in response to wind energy development

et al. 2014

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“…In addition to a single-daily survival estimate, the first stage of model selection for each analysis included year, habitat, and nest or brood age with constant survival, linear time trends, and quadratic time trends. Annual variation can result from changes in regional weather patterns, fluctuations in predator populations, disease, and other factors (Ryan et al 1998). We included habitat to encompass overall vegetation structure and composition.…”

Section: Survival Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nest and Brood Survival of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in West Central Kansas

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Gilgert

et al. 2006

Journal of Wildlife Management

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We evaluated the effect of habitat use and other sources of variation on survival of lesser prairie‐chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) and greater prairie‐chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) nests and broods. Daily nest and brood‐survival probabilities were a function of a quadratic time trend, and both declined as the season progressed. Daily nest survival was negatively associated with nest age, and daily brood survival was positively associated with brood age. Lastly, broods tended by adult females had higher daily survival rates than broods reared by subadult females. The probability of a nest surviving from 10 May to 1 June was 0.72 (SE = 0.06). The probability of a brood surviving from 1 June to 30 July (hatch to 60 days posthatch) was 0.49 (SE = 0.19) and 0.05 (SE = 0.03) for broods reared by adults and subadults, respectively. Although nesting females and females with broods were using Conservation Reserve Program grasslands, there appeared to be no benefit to nest and brood survival during our study. Instead, age of the nest and brood, timing during the season, age of the brooding female, and precipitation during brooding were more important predictors of survival. Further experimentation is needed to determine the mechanisms responsible for decreased nest and brood survival throughout the season. Results from such research could be used to formulate management strategies to improve nest and brood survival.

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“…Life‐history traits and habitat use of prairie‐chickens in tallgrass ecosystems are well known because studies have been conducted to identify reasons for the decline in prairie‐chicken numbers throughout the edges of its range; these studies include brood habitat selection and survival (e.g., Bowman and Robel , Ryan et al , Matthews et al , Schole et al ). Even in tallgrass systems, the demography of prairie‐chickens can be affected by variation across landscapes (McNew et al ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Greater prairie‐chicken brood‐site selection and survival in the Nebraska sandhills

et al. 2015

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The greater prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) is a grassland bird species of conservation concern, although the region of the Nebraska Sandhills has the largest and most stable population in North America. The Sandhills region is semiarid and dominated by privately owned rangeland; vegetation in the region is typically less dense than the tall grass ecosystem. Most management recommendations for the greater prairie-chicken are based on work in tall grass prairies, so our goal was to estimate the responses of brood-site selection and survival to the unique vegetation characteristics of the Sandhills region. We studied prairie-chickens on private rangelands in Rock and Brown Counties from 2009 to 2011. We radio-marked 139 females and monitored females with broods from May through July using pickup-mounted and handheld telemetry systems. We used discrete choice models to assess micro-scale habitat selection within used pastures. Specifically, we investigated the effect of local heterogeneity of vegetation structure and composition on site selection. The contiguous grasslands of the Sandhills contain variation in soils, slope, and proximity to water table, so we also assessed selection of these ecological sites (the equivalent of land-use categories in fragmented landscapes) for brood-rearing within the broad landscape (macro-scale). Last, we assessed variation in brood survival in response to weather and vegetation structure and composition. Prairie-chicken females with broods selected sands ecological sites (upland, rolling hills sites) that had thicker vegetation with higher visual obstruction reading (VOR; x ¼ 7.7 cm, SE ¼ 0.4), more variable VOR ( x ¼ 20.1, AE2.1), and greater litter depth ( x ¼ 0.07 cm, AE0.01) than at coupled random locations (VOR: x ¼ 6.6 cm, AE0.1; variance VOR: x ¼ 15.6, AE0.8; litter depth: x ¼ 0.05 cm, AE0.01). The selection function for brood sites peaked for sites with approximately 10 cm VOR, which was significantly less than the range of 20-30 cm of visual obstruction suggested for management of tallgrass prairies. In fact, only 5.0% of random sites and 5.4% of sites used by hens with broods had VOR >20 cm. However, VOR and litter depth did not explain variability in brood survival, and we found considerable uncertainty in our analysis of daily survival. Models with forb cover were ranked highest in the survival analyses (combined vAIC c ¼ 0.63), which provided some support for a positive effect of forb cover on brood survival (b forb cover ¼ 0.327, SE ¼ 0.337). We suggest that land managers in the Sandhills region provide brooding habitat in grazed, upland ecological sites that is characterized by minimal bare ground, a consistent distribution of litter, a forb component, and VOR levels of 4-11 cm in pastures in the vicinity of leks. Ó 2015 The Wildlife Society.

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Breeding Ecology of Greater Prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) in Relation to Prairie Landscape Configuration

Cited by 25 publications

References 25 publications

Space use by female Greater Prairie‐Chickens in response to wind energy development

Space use by female Greater Prairie‐Chickens in response to wind energy development

Nest and Brood Survival of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in West Central Kansas

Greater prairie‐chicken brood‐site selection and survival in the Nebraska sandhills

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