Feds Pull Protections for Rare Prairie Chicken

A ground-dwelling bird known for its elaborate mating dances on the southern Great Plains will no longer receive federal protection after the administration of Donald Trump agreed with arguments from three states and representatives of the beef and petroleum industries that the species had been listed improperly.

Thursday’s decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formalized a recent court ruling acknowledging that the agency now sides with opponents of Endangered Species Act protections for the lesser prairie chicken, the AP reports. A federal judge in Midland, Texas, effectively ended those protections last summer.

The Endangered Species Act safeguards had required energy companies and ranchers to take steps to avoid disturbing the bird’s habitat, particularly its mating grounds, known as leks.

About the size of a crow, the lesser prairie chicken once numbered in the millions. Habitat loss driven by energy production and agricultural development has reduced the population to roughly 30,000 birds across parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Wildlife enthusiasts are drawn each spring to the males’ flamboyant courtship displays, which feature warbling, clucking, and stomping as they compete to attract mates. Some Native American tribes incorporate similar displays into traditional dances, echoing the behavior of both the lesser prairie chicken and the more common greater prairie chicken.

The species has been federally protected twice in recent years. In 2015, a federal judge in Midland overturned its earlier designation as a threatened species, siding with petroleum developers who argued existing conservation measures were sufficient. In 2022, the administration of Joe Biden listed the lesser prairie chicken as threatened in the northern portion of its range—covering Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas—and as endangered in a distinct southern population.