Attwater’s Prairie-chicken: Down to a Handful
Photographs by Joel Sartore / Text by Douglas H. Chadwick
At sunrise the Attwater’s prairie-chickens transform from mottled grouse into ornaments that exalt the flat coastal plain of Texas. They strike a rigid pose, tail feathers held over their backs in spiky fans. Special neck feathers cocked up behind their heads like horns. On each side of the throat big patches of golden skin with magenta margins inflated like balloons, and extra gold flared over the eyes. Strutting about, the performers bow while deep notes boomed from the resonant air sacs. Oo-loo-woo. Oo-loo-woo. Then they boogied, each stamping his feet as through trying to drive them into the ground.
There are bout 10 male Attwater’s and 20 females left in the wild. They inhabit two separate grassy patches in Texas totaling 12,400 acres, the remnants of six million acres of coastal prairie that supported as many as a million Attwater’s a century ago. The grouse were overhunted early and hit by habitat loss every year since. Now we’re near the point where the loss of one more Attwater’s to raptor, skunk, disease, storm, starvation, collision with fence wire—anything—could trigger a final countdown.
NGM 2002/03