Greater prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido pinnata) and sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) are important game species throughout much of the Great Plains, and both are used as indicator species of grassland health. Both prairie grouse species coexist in the Sandhills of Nebraska, but little is known about their habitat use or movements in the winter. Our objective is to evaluate the effects of ecological sites within rangeland and irrigated crop fields on winter movements of sharp-tailed grouse and greater prairie-chickens in the Sandhills. In order to provide a range of different land uses and proximity to crop fields, we selected two study areas to trap and tag birds: Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest and Valentine National Wildlife Refuge. We trapped and attached radio-collars to 22 female sharp-tailed grouse, 6 male sharp-tailed grouse, and 5 female greater prairie-chickens on 10 leks from March to April 2015. Sixteen of the 33 birds survived until August 2015: 10 sharp-tailed grouse hens, 3 greater prairie chicken hens, and 3 male sharp-tailed grouse. We will use aerial telemetry to obtain locations every two weeks from October through February. We will quantify movement distances, and will use GIS layers of habitat use and land cover to conduct an analysis of resource selection to assess which macrohabitat variables influence habitat selection of prairie grouse in the winter. Our research will provide information to assist with predictions of grouse population trends under various scenarios of landscape use for grazing or row-crop agriculture.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.