Nesting Ecology of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in Sand Sagebrush Prairie of Southwestern Kansas

Pitman, James C.; Hagen, Christian A.; Jamison, Brent E.; Robel, Robert J.; Loughin, Thomas M.; Applegate, Roger D.

doi:10.1676/1559-4491(2006)118[0023:neolpi]2.0.co;2

Cited by 42 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In Kansas, nest sites were located further from utility lines, buildings, and improved roads than expected at random (Pitman et al 2006). Pruett et al (2009) found few Lesser Prairie-Chicken nests within 2 km of a power line in an Oklahoma study and only one Greater Prairie-Chicken nest within 2 km of the power line.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Including state as a predictor did not greatly alter model results, and its importance was likely partly driven by sampling bias. These results are not surprising because Lesser Prairie-Chickens conduct most of their daily activities and complete their life cycle within 1.5 km of known leks (Pitman et al 2006, Boal and Pirius 2012, Grisham et al 2014. Therefore, lek suitability should increase in landscapes that contain high amounts of vegetation classes known to be used by Lesser Prairie-Chickens, i.e., shrubland or grassland systems, for other life stages such as those described by Hagen et al (2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…To explore what landscapes may be important to the occurrence of leks, we created vegetation predictors of percent known used, percent suspected used, and percent CRP summarizing a 1600 m diameter neighborhood and a 5000 m diameter neighborhood around each location. These distances cover the range in reported area around leks used by Lesser Prairie-Chickens (newer estimate around 1.5 km from Pitman et al 2006, Boal and Pirius 2012, and Grisham et al 2014 to older estimates of 4.8 km used by Fuhlendorf et al 2002). Known used consisted of vegetation broadly classified as Table 1.…”

Section: Data Setsmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Jarnevich¹,

Holcombe²,

Grisham³

et al. 2016

ACE

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ABSTRACT. Population declines of many wildlife species have been linked to habitat loss incurred through land-use change. Incorporation of conservation planning into development planning may mitigate these impacts. The threatened Lesser PrairieChicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is experiencing loss of native habitat and high levels of energy development across its multijurisdictional range. Our goal was to explore relationships of the species occurrence with landscape characteristics and anthropogenic effects influencing its distribution through evaluation of habitat suitability associated with one particular habitat usage, lekking. Lekking has been relatively well-surveyed, though not consistently, in all jurisdictions. All five states in which Lesser Prairie-Chickens occur cooperated in development of a Maxent habitat suitability model. We created two models, one with state as a factor and one without state. When state was included it was the most important predictor, followed by percent of land cover consisting of known or suspected used vegetation classes within a 5000 m area around a lek. Without state, land cover was the most important predictor of relative habitat suitability for leks. Among the anthropogenic predictors, landscape condition, a measure of human impact integrated across several factors, was most important, ranking third in importance without state. These results quantify the relative suitability of the landscape within the current occupied range of Lesser Prairie-Chickens. These models, combined with other landscape information, form the basis of a habitat assessment tool that can be used to guide siting of development projects and targeting of areas for conservation. Évaluation de la qualité d'habitat dans l'ensemble de l'aire du Tétras pâleRÉSUMÉ. Les baisses de population de nombreuses espèces fauniques ont été associées à la perte d'habitat consécutive aux changements d'utilisation des terres. L'incorporation de la planification de la conservation dans la planification du développement pourrait modérer ces impacts. Le Tétras pâle (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) est une espèce menacée qui fait face à la perte d'habitat naturel et à des niveaux élevés de développement énergétique dans l'ensemble de son aire multi autorités. L'objectif de notre étude était d'explorer les relations existantes entre les occurrences de l'espèce et les caractéristiques du paysage ainsi que les effets anthropiques qui influencent sa répartition, au moyen de l'évaluation de la qualité de l'habitat utilisé pour la parade (aire de lek), un habitat à usage particulier. Les aires de lek ont été relativement bien inventoriées, bien que de façon non constante, par toutes les autorités concernées. Les cinq États dans lesquels se trouve le Tétras pâle ont tous coopéré dans l'élaboration d'un modèle de qualité de l'habitat Maxent. Nous avons créé deux modèles : l'un comprenant l'État comme variable explicative et l'autre ne la comprenant pas. Lorsque l'État était inclus dans le modèle, il se révélait la variable explicati...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Data Setsmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Jarnevich¹,

Holcombe²,

Grisham³

et al. 2016

ACE

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“…We determined nest locations of VHF radio-tagged females by approaching the female via homing when their approximate locations remained unchanged for !3 days (Pitman et al 2006). For females with PTTs, we waited until GPS locations indicated that the female had begun incubation (when downloaded data indicated the female was stationary for !3 days) and used the GPS locations to locate the nest.…”

Section: Nest Locationmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Endangered Species Act (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2016), and attention to habitat management and conservation, evidence suggests that Lesser Prairie-Chicken populations have not recovered (McDonald et al 2015). Therefore, understanding the role of environmental stressors on nest survival may identify fine-scale interactions between nest vegetation and microclimate that have not been incorporated into previous assessments of nest ecology (Pitman et al 2006, Davis 2009, Fritts et al 2016) and thus improve conservation actions for the species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactive effects between nest microclimate and nest vegetation structure confirm microclimate thresholds for Lesser Prairie-Chicken nest survival

et al. 2016

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The range of Lesser Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) spans 4 unique ecoregions along 2 distinct environmental gradients. The Sand Shinnery Oak Prairie ecoregion of the Southern High Plains of New Mexico and Texas is environmentally isolated, warmer, and more arid than the Short-Grass, Sand Sagebrush, and Mixed-Grass Prairie ecoregions in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the northeast panhandle of Texas. Weather is known to influence Lesser Prairie-Chicken nest survival in the Sand Shinnery Oak Prairie ecoregion; regional variation may also influence nest microclimate and, ultimately, survival during incubation. To address this question, we placed data loggers adjacent to nests during incubation to quantify temperature and humidity distribution functions in 3 ecoregions. We developed a suite of a priori nest survival models that incorporated derived microclimate parameters and visual obstruction as covariates in Program MARK. We monitored 49 nests in Mixed-Grass, 22 nests in Sand Shinnery Oak, and 30 nests in Short-Grass ecoregions from 2010 to 2014. Our findings indicated that (1) the Sand Shinnery Oak Prairie ecoregion was hotter and drier during incubation than the Mixed- and Short-Grass ecoregions; (2) nest microclimate varied among years within ecoregions; (3) visual obstruction was positively associated with nest survival; but (4) daily nest survival probability decreased by 10% every half-hour when temperature was greater than 34°C and vapor pressure deficit was less than −23 mmHg during the day (about 0600–2100 hours). Our major finding confirmed microclimate thresholds for nest survival under natural conditions across the species' distribution, although Lesser Prairie-Chickens are more likely to experience microclimate conditions that result in nest failures in the Sand Shinnery Oak Prairie ecoregion. The species would benefit from identification of thermal landscapes and management actions that promote cooler, more humid nest microclimates.

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Lesser Prairie‐chicken incubation behavior and nest success most influenced by nest vegetation structure

Gehrt,

Sullins,

Verheijen

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

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Incubation breaks are necessary for any nesting bird but can increase the mortality risk of the nest or attending parent. How intrinsic and extrinsic variables affect nest attentiveness—the proportion of time a female is on nest during incubation— and subsequent survival of the nest remains unclear for uniparental species. We related female nest attentiveness to nest survival and tested the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic variables on nest attentiveness by female Lesser Prairie‐chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) using GPS locations of 87 females at 109 nest sites in 3 study areas in Kansas during 2013–2015. Daily nest survival increased by 39% when nest attentiveness increased from 21% to 98%. Female Lesser Prairie‐chickens were 18% less attentive as body mass increased from 600 to 920 g. Daily precipitation and temperature, controlled for days into the incubation period, had interactive effects on nest attentiveness with nest attentiveness lowest on cool, wet days and increasing as temperature increased, regardless of precipitation (41% attentiveness at 16°C and 79 mm of precipitation to 90% attentiveness at 37°C and 41 mm of precipitation). Nest attentiveness increased by 11% as the quantity of grass at the nest site increased from 5% to 78% when visual obstruction was at 1 and 2 decimeters (dm) and increased 9% as the quantity of grass at the nest site increased from 5% to 83% when visual obstruction was at its maximum (3 dm). Our findings reveal the critical importance of nest attentiveness and incubation behavior, not only in relation to demography, but within the context of changing environmental conditions. As warmer temperatures and extreme precipitation events become more common and change the growth rates of vegetation, species like the Lesser Prairie‐chicken that are ground‐nesting, rely on vegetation cover, and exhibit uniparental care could experience negative demographic consequences.

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Nesting Ecology of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in Sand Sagebrush Prairie of Southwestern Kansas

Cited by 42 publications

References 19 publications

Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Interactive effects between nest microclimate and nest vegetation structure confirm microclimate thresholds for Lesser Prairie-Chicken nest survival

Lesser Prairie‐chicken incubation behavior and nest success most influenced by nest vegetation structure

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