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Nature Conservancy Preserves Key Habitat for Prairie Chicken

The lesser prairie chicken once roamed in abundant numbers across the high plains of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas. In the 1540s, the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado reported seeing thousands of the birds during his exploration of the Southwest. Later, sod-busting pioneers relied on them for food in hard times. Since 1900, prairie chicken populations have plummeted by 97 percent. However, a recent acquisition of prime prairie chicken habitat by The Nature Conservancy in New Mexico has given these distinctive "booming" birds a greater chance of survival.

The Conservancy recently made its first foray into eastern New Mexico's Southern Shortgrass Prairie with the purchased the 18,500-acre Creamer Ranch. Long recognized as the center of the state's prairie chicken population, the Creamer Ranch has more than 40 leks, or display grounds—an extraordinary density of birds. The ranch also provides habitat for the sand dune lizard (another imperiled species that is endemic to the area), black-tailed prairie dogs, burrowing owls and a host of other prairie species.

"There are only two places remaining where significant numbers of birds remain," said Gary Bell, New Mexico's director of conservation science. "One is in southern Kansas and the Oklahoma panhandle, and the other is in southern New Mexico and the panhandle of Texas. The Creamer Ranch is probably the most important single piece of property for ensuring the long-term survival of this species."

The ranch is characterized by rolling sand dunes stabilized by shinnery oak, a deciduous shrub that grows in large patches with 80 percent of its biomass located underground. The cover provided by these plants is perfect for prairie chicken nests.

Their elaborate mating rituals are performed nearby on adjacent areas of clay soils. During the spring, just before daybreak, the male birds gather at these leks, spreading tail feathers, extending neck feathers, inflating the bright orange sacs on the sides of their necks, and "dancing" while making a "booming" noise that can often be heard more than a mile away. While the males display and spar, the female chickens are attracted to the lek and the discriminating hens mate with the males of their choice.

The Conservancy will manage the ranch for its conservation values while allowing its former owners, Shirley and Roy Creamer, to maintain a scaled-down livestock operation. This collaboration, along with partnerships with other ranchers and federal and state wildlife agencies, should improve the lesser prairie chicken's prospects for recovery.

For more information about prairie chickens:

• Where We Work: The Nature Conservancy in New Mexico
  Active in New Mexico since 1973, The Nature Conservancy has preserved more than 1.3 million acres throughout the state.
• The Unlucky 13: Greater Prairie Chicken and Lesser Prairie Chicken
  The Conservancy's Prairie Wings project has mapped the places that need to be preserved to save 13 unlucky birds. Together with government agencies such as the US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy is protecting those large landscapes that are most critical to our declining grassland birds.
• Lewis and Clark: Greater Prairie Chicken
  Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri River, flanked by grasslands called prairies by the French, just as the annual spectacular courtship and mating rituals of the greater prairie chicken would have ended.
• Press Release: The Nature Conservancy Purchases Prime Prairie Chicken Property
  The Nature Conservancy announced today the planned acquisition of the 18,500-acre Creamer Ranch, a place long recognized as the epicenter of the state's lesser prairie chicken core population.
• Archive of our past Saves of the Week and Success Stories
  Read more about our work to save the last great places on Earth.