The Attwater’s prairie chicken has been on its way to extinction since 1919 when they started disappearing from Louisiana. Now there are only 104 of them left. Scientist have been trying to rescue the Attwater’s for years and are struggling with the task. In order to get the prairie chicken off the endangered species list they have to have 6,000 chickens for 10 years. They estimate that it will cost $192 million and take 50 years to accomplish this, but the recovery program only gets $1 million a year from the federal government. The prairie chicken has a short life span and is only expected to live about two years. They have a large number of predators that include owls, coyotes, hawks, snakes, etc. The male chickens fight with each other to prevail and find a mate. Michael Morrow said “One of two males do 87 percent of the mating.” In the 1990’s the recovery team tried to put chicks that were kept in captivity back in the wild, but eight days in all 15 of them had died. They tried to acclimate the chicks to their new environment the next time they released chicks, but that time they were decapitated by owls. They tried again and that time they all spread a disease to each other and died. At the Johnson Space Center they kept prairie chickens in captivity, but they only had one male and one female and the female was not interested in mating with the male, so no offspring were produced. From 1995 to 2007 the recovery team hatched 1,185 chicks in captivity but by the end of each year there were only 50 left. Five years ago scientist discovered that the reason that so many chicks were dying is that they rely on insects to eat in their first month of life and red fire ants were killing all of the bugs. Fire ants are an invasive species in the southwest so the team has been exterminating them and adding plants that attract bugs. This has been working and chicks in the wild have had a higher chance of survival. The Attwater’s prairie chicken has a chance of reaching 150 birds this year.
I chose this article because I wanted to learn more about what certain agencies are doing to prevent specific species from going extinct. This article shows us that it is very hard to get a species to have a stable population after it has been depleted. The discovery that the red fire ants kill off the insects that are native to the southwest could help for protecting other species that also eat bugs. The discoveries of this team could help to increase the population of the Attwater’s prairie chicken. This article gives insight into the amount of money needed to protect a species and the disparity in the funding that they get from the government.
I would have liked to know why the author of this article wanted to write about the Attwater’s prairie chicken as opposed to any other animal that is going extinct in our nation. I also think it would have been beneficial to add more about what the researchers are going to do to save the prairie chicken not just what they have tried before. The article was well written and I learned a lot from it. I would have liked to know about other methods that are being used to save different species too.
Goode, Erica. “The Fight to Save a Prairie Chicken” New York Times. 10 Sept 2015. 4 Sept 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/science/the-fight-to-save-a-prairie-chicken.html? action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>
Goode, Erica. “The Fight to Save a Prairie Chicken” New York Times. 10 Sept 2015. 4 Sept 2015.
ReplyDeleteI read Allegra’s review for the article, “The Fight to Save a Prairie Chicken.” I thought the review was really good and found the article really interesting. One thing done very well in this review was the amount of statistics that were given to us readers. We had a better feeling for the direness of the situation when given numbers to compare. An example of this is when Allegra states, “From 1995 to 2007 the recovery team hatched 1,185 chicks in captivity but by the end of each year there were only 50 left.” Another thing done well is the use of scientific language throughout the piece, she really displays her knowledge of these scientific terms such as, “extinction,” “invasive species,” and “predators,” it made the review much more interesting to read. Lastly, I think her approach to addressing a solution to the problem was good. Examples such as these were good to add, “Fire ants are an invasive species in the southwest so the team has been exterminating them and adding plants that attract bugs. This has been working and chicks in the wild have had a higher chance of survival. The Attwater’s prairie chicken has a chance of reaching 150 birds this year.” The review would not have been as appealing if she had only explained the article’s facts about the rate of decline, without the programs trying to help the chicken.
One thing Allegra could have done better was the flow of the review. Many times I felt the review would go back and forth quickly with no transition from efforts to save the birds, to reasons they are declining such as; “They tried to acclimate the chicks to their new environment the next time they released chicks, but that time they were decapitated by owls. They tried again and that time they all spread a disease to each other and died.” Another thing she could slightly improve upon is the introduction of the prairie chicken. The review starts abruptly and states, “The Attwater’s prairie chicken has been on its way to extinction since 1919 when they started disappearing from Louisiana.” We are given no further explanation of background in the beginning on the chicken or why it is becoming extinct. To me those would have been valuable pieces of information to include. However, Allegra did a great job.
This review allowed for me to have a great learning experience. In addition to learning a lot about a species i had never heard of, the prairie chicken, I learned about organisms relationships in ecosystems. The reason for the decline in prairie chickens, given at the end of the review, is based off the fire ants eating all of the insects needed to feed the chickens. “Five years ago scientist discovered that the reason that so many chicks were dying is that they rely on insects to eat in their first month of life and red fire ants were killing all of the bugs.” This really opened my eyes to the true interactions of species. Indirectly, the fire ants have this massive impact on the population of prairie chickens because of what the fire ants eat. This is a really cool example of inter-ecosystem interactions.