In the late 1880s, one million Attwater’s Prairie-Chickens thrived across coastal Texas and western Louisiana. Over the next century, widespread habitat conversion for agricultural and other land uses pushed this species to the brink of extinction, and it was listed as endangered in 1967. In 2009, with only about 100 Attwater’s Prairie-Chickens remaining in the wild, NFWF created the Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken Initiative to help stimulate innovative solutions to recover this species.

This initiative seeks to re-establish the ecological foundation from which the population of Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken can once again become viable. Through strategic investments, NFWF and its partners expect to increase the free-ranging population of prairie-chickens to more than 1,000 birds by 2018.

Key conservation strategies for Attwater's Prairie-Chickens include:

• Identification of viable solutions to the physiological and habitat-related problems that appear to plague this population; and
• Development of captive-breeding facilities that maximize production of healthy offspring.

For more detail on priority activities, please see the Attwater's Prairie-Chicken Business Plan.