Land Use and Prairie Chicken Populations in Southwestern Missouri

Abstract

Prairie chicken populations fluctuated from a low of 44 (both sexes) in 1949 to a high of 314 (males only) in 1967 on 16.5 square miles of prairie chicken range in St. Clair County, Missouri. The largest population increases occurred when the number of booming cocks rose from 80 in 1963 to 314 in 1967. These population increases were believed to have occurred in response to a combination of increased grassland and improved management of a 1,360-acre tract of native grassland. A study of agricultural censes data and aerial photographs for 1939-66 indicated that the amount of grassland increased from 45.3 per cent to 56.9 per cent of the study area and that the increase occurred primarily as fescue established since 1957. In 1959 the Missouri Department of Conservation purchased a 1,360-acre tract of native prairie near the center of the study area. Subsequent management was intended to maintain quality stands of native grasses thus providing ample prairie chicken cover at all seasons of the year. The increased prairie chicken population possibly was a response to greater grassland acreages on the entire study area. But judging by very heavy use of the 1,360-acre native prairie tract near the center of the study area, improved management of that tract may have been an important factor. The importance of permanent grasslands to the greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) has been documented by many authors; Schwartz (1945) and Hamerstrom, Mattson, and Hamerstrom (1957) are outstanding examples. However, it is difficult to determine the minimum amounts of grassland required and optimal spatial needs of the birds. Grassland requirements for prairie chicken almost certainly vary by locality. These problems necessitate the study of prairie chicken populations and accompanying changes in land use in many parts of the greater prairie chicken's range. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, Vol. 73, No. 2, 1970. Published January 15, 1971. 1 Contribution from Missouri Department of Conservation, Federal Aid to Wildlife Restoration Project 13-R-19; and from the Missouri Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, U. S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Wildlife Management Institute, Missouri Department of Conservation, and University of Missouri, Cooperating. 2 Present address: Science Department, Trenton Senior High School, Trenton, Missouri 64683.