The Nature Conservancy - Birds Gone Wild

Learn more about Attwater’s prairie chickens.

An Attwater's prairie chicken being prepped for release into the wild
Mike Morrow, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, prepares a captive-bred Attwater's prairie chicken for release. © Clay Carrington/TNC

More than 1 million Attwater’s prairie chicken once roamed the Texas and Louisiana coastal plains. Now, the species is one of the most critically endangered in the world, with fewer than 100 birds surviving in the wild.

As part of the effort to save the species, the Conservancy recently assisted representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners in releasing 166 captive-bred birds at two locations on the Texas coastal prairie.

The birds—bred in facilities at SeaWorld San Antonio; Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose; and the Houston, San Antonio, Caldwell and Abilene zoos—were transported to either the Conservancy’s Texas City Prairie Preserve or a private ranch in Goliad County.

Texas City Prairie Preserve is a 2,300-acre stretch of coastal prairie located on Galveston Bay. While the preserve is home to remaining prairie chicken habitat, it’s effectively hemmed in by the Gulf of Mexico and the human communities of Texas City. As such, long-term survival of the Attwater’s prairie chicken depends on the willingness of private landowners in the coastal plains to conserve habitat and release wild birds onto their land.

Thanks to one such family, 135 of the captive-bred birds are being released onto a private ranch in Goliad County. The ranch—part of the historic habitat for the species—lies within a pristine native prairie kept intact by the same family since the mid-1800s. This is the second year juvenile Attwater's prairie chickens have been released at this ranch.

In each release, the birds are gathered at breeding facilities and fitted with radio-transmission collars before being taken by van to their new homes. Before being placed in large acclimation pens, the birds are dusted with Sevin powder, a talcum-like substance that protects them from fleas, mites and other irritants. The birds stay in the acclimation pens for up to two weeks before being fully released.

The birds are being released on the ranch through a partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Coastal Prairie Coalition of the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, Papalote Land and Cattle Company (the landowner), Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The ranch is part of the 60,000-acre Goliad Prairie, which spans half a dozen family ranches. The Goliad Prairie and the adjacent 40,000-acre Refugio Prairie make up the largest remaining intact expanse of tallgrass coastal prairie on the Gulf Coast.

Terry Rosignol (left) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department looks on while Mike Morrow (right) and Aaron Pratt check the transmission collar on an Attwater's prairie chicken moments before its release. © Clay Carrington/TNC

For more than a decade, the survival of Attwater’s prairie chickens has depended on intense species management, restoration of their limited existing habitat and a captive-breeding program – all conducted by a recovery team of conservation organizations spearheaded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wade Harrell, Ph.D., is the Conservancy’s Texas Coastal Prairies project director and a member of the recovery team for the species. He is providing project management for the reintroduction of the birds at this site. “Attwater’s prairie chickens were once a common wildlife species inhabiting Texas’ coastal prairies, numbering in the hundreds of thousands,” he said. “Now, there are less than 100 left in the wild.”

The birds that do persist in the wild are found in two locations not far from Houston – the Conservancy’s Texas City Prairie Preserve and the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge at Eagle Lake.

The rapid disappearance of the coastal prairie is the primary reason for the decline of the Attwater’s prairie chicken, placed on the Endangered Species List in 1967. The tallgrass coastal prairie they depend on once covered 6 million acres; today, only about 2 percent of it still remains in fragmented tracts.

“Our goal in working in the Refugio-Goliad Prairie is to conserve this coastal prairie, one of the rarest habitat types in Texas,” Harrell said. “We are able to do this effectively only through partnership with private landowners.”

© Earl Nottinghame/Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Attwater's prairie chickens will remain in pens such as this one to get acclimated to their new surroundings. © Earl Nottingham/Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

The limited habitat that remains for the prairie chickens at both the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge and Texas City Prairie Preserve is becoming increasingly threatened by encroaching development. Experts believe the reintroduction of the birds in the Goliad and Refugio prairies is the best hope for this imperiled species, although the risks are high and there is no certainty of success.

But the effort is worthwhile, Harrell notes. “The Attwater’s prairie chicken is an important part of our natural Texas heritage,” he said. “If recovery of the species is successful, we can provide our children and grandchildren a glimpse of the vast prairies and wildlife species of yesteryear.”

Maintenance and restoration of the Refugio and Goliad prairies has been a concerted effort between landowners and a number of conservation agencies and organizations since about 1995. Participating organizations include the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Coastal Prairie Conservation Initiative. All of these partners are supporting the reintroduction of Attwater’s prairie chickens on private lands in the region. The Conservancy’s Refugio-Goliad Prairie Conservation Plan provides further details on this effort.

The release of Attwater’s prairie chickens on a private ranch is funded in part through a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Private Stewardship Grants Program to the Coastal Prairie Coalition of the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, a group of private landowners committed to prairie conservation and working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative has a Safe Harbor Agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service in which participating landowners voluntarily undertake management activities on their property to restore or enhance habitat for endangered species. Under the agreement, the landowner is assured that no additional federal restrictions will be placed on the land, and he or she can change the land use without penalty.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is supplying the juvenile birds for release from the captive breeding program and provides expertise and support for the project as the federal agency charged with the protection and recovery of endangered species. The Conservancy provides project management and has hired staff to monitor the released birds during critical periods.