Smile! You’re on cupido camera
If a picture says a 1,000 words, perhaps a video could communicate some lessons from the prairie? With the help of a grant through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Detroit Lakes Wetlands Office, the MPCS and other partners have teamed up to make learning about chickens and prairies more interactive. This project will enable a remote camera to be placed on a lek at the Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge so schools can bring the booming right into their own classrooms. This is being done, not to take the place of the actual field experience, but to initiate interest in using the Refuge as an outdoor classroom, demonstrating how technology is used to gather information and to document animal behaviors for research purposes. It’s the classroom component. A few teachers have made use of it for years - first by teaching lessons in the classroom using prairie chicken curriculum materials and the MPCS’ Prairie Chicken Learning Kit and then by taking students and parents on early morning trips to a booming ground to view this spectacular spring courtship ritual first-hand.
If you want to learn more about the project contact Scott Kahan at (218) 844-3403 or Steve Maanum at (218) 732-3447 to learn more about using this curriculum at your local school.
Nearly a third of U.S. bird species at risk
Posted on Reuters.com
The Department of the Interior released a new report this week (March 2009) examining bird populations in the U.S. According to the report -- "The State of the Birds" -- 251 out of 800 species are endangered, threatened, or suffering drastic declines. DOI Secretary Ken Salazar noted that birds are a bellwether for overall ecosystem health; habitat loss, pollution, and other factors pose threats to a wide range of wildlife. Conservation efforts have been effective in some regions, particularly helping waterfowl rebound, but grasslands, forests, and deserts have seen population crashes. According to Salazar, "When we talk about birds and we talk about wildlife, we're also talking about the economics of this country" and funding for conservation is vital. The report can be found at www.thestateofthebirds.org.
Greater Prairie Chickens Translocated from Minnesota to Wisconsin
The Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus, Ltd., is pleased to announce the successful translocation of 40 greater prairie chicken hens from northwestern Minnesota to central Wisconsin in September 2006. The translocation was necessary because Wisconsin¹s contemporary population of GPC were shown to have suffered a significant loss in genetic diversity when compared to both Wisconsin prairie chicken genetic samples from the 1950s, and the much larger contemporary populations in other states. Biologists found that the loss in genetic diversity in Wisconsin was due to low numbers and a loss of connectivity between subpopulations all due to a limited amount of grassland habitat. A continued loss of genetic diversity would likely lead to inbreeding depression and reproductive failure similar to that seen in Illinois where the translocation of birds in 1992-98 from Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas successfully increased genetic diversity.
The hens released in Wisconsin were initially captured on booming grounds in Minnesota during April this year, radio-marked, released in place then recaptured by using lights at night during September. The recaptured hens were released the following day into an existing population of about 1,000 prairie chickens on the Buena Vista Wildlife Management Area near Plainfield, WI. The birds were translocated during the time period when they are molting flight feathers and are the least mobile. This increases the chances that they will remain near their release sites. Analysis of blood samples taken during April indicated that the birds in Minnesota were healthy and disease free. As of November 1, 2006, a month after the last release, 36 of the 40 radio-marked hens were alive and accounted for with two missing and two dead, apparently killed by raptors. All 36 were located within two miles of their release sites. This is hopefully one of several releases of 25 to 40 hens that will occur over the next three to five years in order to increase the genetic diversity of the Wisconsin population.
Unfortunately such translocations will only create a temporary fix to the genetic problems that have stemmed from a reduction in suitable habitat. Unless there is a substantial increase in the amount of grassland habitat to support a population large enough to sustain genetic diversity on its own, genetic diversity will decline again. If this occurs, birds will have to be translocated again and again at some yet unknown intervals just to maintain the current remnant population.
A Plan For the Genetic Restoration Of The Greater Prairie Chicken in Wisconsin, Capture, Release and Evaluation 2006-2010 was written by Dr. John Toepfer and funded by the Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus Ltd. (STCP). The development of the summer GPC translocation protocol and translocation of GPC from Minnesota to Wisconsin was conducted by Dr. Toepfer, assistants and partners and was funded by STCP and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WIDNR). It was done with the cooperation of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR) and private landowners in Minnesota.
STCP would like to sincerely thank the MNDNR and their local wildlife managers, WIDNR, Scott Hull and David Sample, central Wisconsin WIDNR staff Greg Dahl, Jim Keir, Ken Rosenthal and Bob Michelson. Also to be thanked are Dr. Julie Langenberg, Nancy Businga CVT-WIDNR and Dr. Joanne Paul-Murphy UW-Madison for surveying the Wisconsin and Minnesota birds for disease and parasites. Thanks are also due to Mike Morrow, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), Dave Halfmann and especially Jacob "Jake" Stich for help in night lighting and processing the birds and to Deann De La Ronde for shuttling birds from Minnesota via truck to Wisconsin for release the mornings following capture. Finally, a special thank you to The Nature Conservancy, Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society, USFWS, MNDNR and especially the private landowners in northwestern Minnesota who graciously allowed us access to their lands to capture, recapture and translocated prairie chickens. Without their much-appreciated cooperation, none of this would have been possible.
For more information, contact Bernie Westfahl at (262) 782-6333.
Heritage Enhancement Program Grant
Received
In the spring of 2006, the MPCS submitted a grant proposal to the DNR's Heritage Enhancement Program. We requested $30,000 for work, primarily tree/shrub removal at Lac Qui Parle Wildlife Management Area and 6 Wildlife Management Areas in Polk County. Due to tight budgets, we only received $20,000. Twenty-four proposals were submitted, and we were one of the 16 funded. Funds will be used to hire independent contractors for the work. This is the second successful grant for MPCS through this program.
Read the 2008 Hunt Report, Michael A. Larson, Forest Wildlife Populations and Research Group
Read the 2006 Prairie Chicken Harvest Report, Mike Larson, Ph.D., MN-DNR
Read the 2005 Prairie Chicken Survey in Minnesota, Mike Larson, Ph.D., MN-DNR
Read about Rothsay, MN's giant prairie chicken statue.
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