Land Use and Vegetation Associated with Greater Prairie-Chicken Leks in an Agricultural Landscape

Abstract

Greater prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) have declined dramatically across their range because of habitat loss, primarily agricultural development. In Wisconsin, most prairie-chicken populations are found in grassland reserves managed primarily for prairie-chickens. However, a few remnant populations persist in an agricultural landscape with little or no management for prairie-chickens. I compared land nse within 2.4 km of 29 prairie-chicken leks and 25 random points in an agricultural landscape to determine habitat associated with presence of prairie-chickens in central Wisconsin. Areas around leks had higher proportious of grasslands, wetlands, and shrubs than around random points, and lower proportions of forests, row crops, and hay fields. Differences between leks and random points varied with scale of sampling. Leks were unevenly distributed in the landscape, with mean distance to nearest lek shorter for leks than random points (P < 0.001). Leks were positively correlated with proportion of grass, shrub, and pasture, and negatively correlated with distance to nearest lek. Number of displaying males was negatively correlated with proportion of row crops and positively correlated with proportion of grassland in the landscape. Correlates of number of males also varied with scale of sampling.