Greater Prairie Chicken - Population and Habitat

Population and Habitat

Greater Prairie Chickens prefer undisturbed prairie and were originally found in tall grass prairies. They can tolerate agricultural land mixed with prairie, but the more agricultural land, the fewer prairie-chickens. Their diet consists primarily of seeds and fruit, but during the summer they also eat insects and green plants. These birds were once widespread all across the oak savanna and tall grass prairie ecosystem. The Greater Prairie Chicken was almost extinct in the 1930s due to hunting pressure and habitat loss. They now only live on small parcels of managed prairie land. It is thought that their current population is approximately 459,000 individuals. In May 2000, the Canadian Species at Risk Act listed the Greater Prairie Chicken as extirpated in its Canadian range (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario). It was again confirmed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in November 2009.

In states such as Missouri that once had thriving prairie chicken populations (estimated to be "hundreds of thousands"), total numbers have dropped to about 500. However, the Missouri Department of Conservation has started a program to import prairie chickens rustled up in Kansas in the hopes that they will be able to repopulate the state and increase that number to 3,000.