Texas Expands Critical Habitat for Endangered Attwater's Prairie Chicken

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has added more than 500 acres of critical habitat to the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, marking the largest expansion of the refuge in decades. The newly protected tract will help strengthen coastal prairie habitat for the endangered Attwater's prairie-chicken, a ground-dwelling grouse known for its elaborate spring "booming" courtship ritual. The species now numbers fewer than 200 birds in the wild, down from an estimated 1 million a century ago.

Why it matters

The Attwater's prairie-chicken is one of North America's most endangered birds, with its population decimated by factors like habitat loss, fragmentation, overhunting, and invasive species. This expansion of protected habitat is a crucial step in conservation efforts to rebuild the population and preserve the coastal prairie ecosystem on which the birds rely.

The details

The newly acquired 500+ acres will be added to the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado County, Texas, bringing the refuge's total protected land to more than 11,000 acres. This coastal prairie habitat is one of the largest remaining pieces in Southeast Texas, as less than 1% of the roughly 6 million acres of Gulf Coast coastal prairie that once existed still remains today, heavily fragmented. The refuge expansion was made possible through funding from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.

• The Attwater's prairie-chicken population was estimated at around 1 million birds across the Gulf Coast prairies of Texas and Louisiana a century ago.
• Today, the species survives in the wild in only two Texas counties: Colorado County and Goliad County.

What’s next

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will continue monitoring the Attwater's prairie-chicken population and managing the expanded refuge habitat to support the species' recovery.