Lesser Prairie Chicken

Taxobox
name = Lesser Prairie Chicken


image_width = 200px
image_caption = Lesser Prairie Chicken - USFWS photo
status = VU
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
subclassis = Neornithes
infraclassis = Neognatha
superordo = Galloanserae
ordo = Galliformes
familia = Tetraonidae (disputed)
genus = "Tympanuchus"
species = "T. pallidicinctus"
binomial = "Tympanuchus pallidicinctus"
binomial_authority = (Ridgway, 1873)
synonyms ="Tympanuchus cupido pallidicinctus"

The Lesser Prairie Chicken, "Tympanuchus pallidicinctus", a species in the grouse family, is slightly smaller and paler than its near relative the Greater Prairie Chicken. It is found primarily in the sandhills and prairies of Western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, and the Llano Estacado of Texas and Eastern New Mexico, and also rarely in Southeastern Colorado and Western Kansas.

Like its larger relative, it is known for its lekking behavior.

Considered "vulnerable" by the IUCN due to its restricted and patchy range, it is vulnerable to habitat destruction. [IUCN2006|assessors=BirdLife International|year=2004|id=40167|title=Tympanuchus pallidicinctus|downloaded=31 May 2008] There is evidence suggesting that global warming may have a particularly detrimental influence by greatly reducing the size of the sagebrush ecosystem. cite web | last = Youth | first = Howard| title = Lekkin’ Grouse on the Prairie| work = Zoogoer March/April 2007| publisher = National Zoo| date = 2007| url = http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2007/2/Lekking.cfm| accessdate =2008-05-31 ] Subfossil remains are known e.g. from Rocky Arroyo in the Guadalupe Mountains, outside the species' current range but where more habitat existed in the less humid conditions in the outgoing last ice age. They disappeared apparently no later than about 8000 BC, soon after the start of human settlement, which may also have contributed to the local extinction. [Howard (1933)]

Footnotes

References

*
* (1933): Bird remains from cave deposits in New Mexico. "Condor" 35(1): 15-18. [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v035n01/p0015-p0018.pdf PDF fulltext] [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/DJVU/v035n01/P0015-P0018.djvu DjVu fulltext]

External links

* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=303&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet]
* [http://audubon2.org/webapp/watchlist/viewSpecies.jsp?id=122 Audubon Watchlist - Lesser Prairie Chicken]
* [http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/especie.phtml?idEspecie=959 Lesser Prairie-Chicken videos] on the Internet Bird Collection
* [http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=lesser+prairie-chicken&showwhat=images&AGE=All&SEX=All&ACT=All&Search=Search&VIEW=All&ORIENTATION=All&RESULTS=24 Lesser Prairie-Chicken photo gallery] VIREO