Attwater's Prairie Chicken Studbook Assessment

The Attwater Prairie Chicken (APC) is a critically endangered grouse found in the coastal prairie of Texas. Currently, about 100 birds exist in the wild. Efforts to propagate and release APCs into the wild have been ongoing since 1992 and 1996, respectively. This program is necessary to provide a long-term source of APCs to supplement critically small wild populations and preserve remaining genetic variability. Currently, four captive breeding facilities have been established for APC captive propagation. During the last few years, an average of about 200 birds have been raised for release annually, a substantial improvement when compared to earlier program years when an average of only about 50 birds where being released annually into the wild. Maintaining the APC captive breeding studbook to prevent inbreeding issues is also very important to the success of the overall APC captive breeding program and has potential to increase annual production. The long-term goal of the APC captive breeding program is to boost wild populations to viable levels and reestablish physically and behaviorally healthy birds to their former range by: 1) maintaining 90 percent of the original gene diversity with a minimum of 200 birds in the captive flock and 2) produce enough chicks annually to release at multiple sites. Results from the genetic assessment will be used to correct the pedigree to prevent inbreeding in the captive population.