Landsat digital data were used to evaluate lesser prairie chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) habitats in western Oklahoma. Data for 7 (4,144 ha) study areas, 4 in shinnery oak (Quercus havardii), and 3 in sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia) rangeland, were analyzed using the Interactive Digital Image Manipulation System at the EROS Center. In shinnery oak rangeland, density of displaying males was correlated positively with percentage of area in grassland classes and negatively correlated with the percentage in brushland classes. In sand sagebrush rangeland, density of displaying males was negatively, but not significantly correlated with percentage of area in bare soil and grassland classes, and positively, but not significantly correlated with percentage of area in brushland classes. The trends found between density of displaying males and the Landsat-generated resource classes closely parallel similar relationships found with field sampling techniques. Analysis of the Landsat digital data for this study cost 13.8 cents/ha. Because larger areas could have been analyzed with the same digital data, the unit cost for analysis would decline with increasingly larger areas. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 46(4):915-922 The range and population size of lesser prairie chickens in western Oklahoma has declined dramatically over the last 20 years (Cannon and Knopf 1980). The current range (2,791 km2) consists of several spatially isolated segments of shinnery oak and sand sagebrush rangeland (Fig. 1). Within these habitats, lesser prairie chickens require extensive areas of tall residual grasses for cover, and respond negatively to overgrazing and grain cropping in excess of 35-40% of an area (Copelin 1963, Crawford and Bolen 1976, Cannon and Knopf 1981). Field monitoring of vegetative changes and the subsequent effects on prairie chickens is costly and time consuming, especially for widely scattered habitat segments. Landsat data recently have shown considerable economic promise to monitor changes in gross vegetative cover associated with wildlife habitats (Katibah and Graves 1979, Craighead 1980). The objectives of our study were to (1) use Landsat data to classify general vegetative cover types (grassland, brushland, bare soil, agriculture) which are important to lesser prairie chickens, and (2) compare vegetation cover estimates from the Landsat analysis and field measurements (Cannon and Knopf 1981) with lesser prairie chicken population data for specific sites. We thank P. A. Vohs and J. A. Bissonette for helping with study design and manuscript review. We also thank S. A. Martin for assistance with data analysis 915 ' Contribution from Oklahoma Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project W-125-R, and U.S. Geological Survey Contract 14-08-001-16439. Aspects of this work were completed while Cannon and Knopf were at the Denver Wildlife Research Center. Reprints available from Knopf. 2 Present address: Missouri Department of Conservation, Fish and Wildlife Research Center, 1110 College Ave., Columbia, MO 65201. 3 Cooperators of the Oklahoma Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit include Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Wildlife Management Institute. 4Present address: Denver Wildlife Research Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1300 Blue Spruce Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80524-2098. J. Wildl. Manage. 46(4):1982 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.128 on Fri, 29 Jul 2016 04:48:26 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 916 LANDSAT ANALYSIS OF LESSER PRAIRIE CHICKEN HABITATS' Cannon et al. SAND SAGEBRUSH STUDY AREAS LANDSAT SCENE 30223-10411 14 OCT 1978 SAND SAGEBRUSH RANGE SHINNERY OAK RANGE /3 SHNNERYSHINNERY OAK STUDY AREAS 4 LANDSAT SCENE 21351-16175 SISOLATED FLOCK 14 OCT 1978 Fig. 1. Geographic range of the lesser prairie chicken in sand sagebrush and shinnery oak rangelands of western Oklahoma showing locations of study areas. Aerial coverages of the 2 Landsat scenes used are overlaid. and D. L. Linden, J. Szajgin, and W. E. Warde for statistical advice.