| Abstract: | Availability and use of Attwater greater prairie chicken (Tpmpanuchus cupido attwateri) habitat was investigated from 1974-1976 on the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge and adjacent agricultural lands in Colorado County, Texas. Rice agriculture, the dominant land use, provided preferred summer and brood-rearing cover. Fallow fields treated with Dicamba, 2, 4-D, and an experimental herbicide to accelerate grass establishment retained effective forb canopy form summer cover in spite of decreased fob density. Utilization-availability analysis indicated that treated and untreated fallow rice fields, of various fallow stages, were used in proportion to availability. Concentration of prairie chickens onto the Coastal Prairie grasslands of the Refuge occurred in fall and winter, when grazed bunchgrass cover provided concealment and protection from adverse weather. Ungrazed pastures were not used, and were characterized by deteriorating range condition. Prairie chickens responded immediately to prescribed burning and mowing treatments applied to Coastal Prairie vegetation in fall and winter. Feeding use occurred throughout winter, and was greates on fall0burned plots. Primary use of mowed plots was for booming. By mid-May, regrowth on treated plots was sufficient for concealment and escape cover, and was used by Attwater prairie chickens for day and night roosting. Thirty variables were analyzed by analysis of variance to determine vegetation response to burning and mowing within the existing grazing system. No statistical differences occurred from species composition and frequency of occurrence of major species. Eight structural characteristics differed significantly among treatments. Major effects of burning were reduced litter cover and biomass, reduced standing dead herbage biomass, and increased forb density and production. Burning, and to a lesser extent mowing, provided the high forb densities and reduced litter accumulation preferred for summer cover. |
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