Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge is a federally protected refugium encompassing one of the largest remnants of coastal prairie habitat remaining in southeast

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, United States, and home to one of the last populations of critically endangered

Attwater's prairie chicken Attwater's prairie chicken (''Tympanuchus cupido attwateri'') is a highly endangered subspecies of the greater prairie chicken that is native to coastal Texas and formerly Louisiana in the United States. Description Attwater's prairie chicken me ...

s, a ground-dwelling

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondria ...

of the coastal prairie

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

. The 10,528-acre (43-km²) refuge, located in eastern Colorado County, about 60 miles (100 km) west of

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

, was established in 1972, and is one of a handful of

national wildlife refuge National Wildlife Refuge System is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to ...

s managed specifically for an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. In 1968, Attwater Prairie Chicken Preserve was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. In the mid-1960s, the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the W ...

purchased of land to preserve some remaining coastal prairie for Attwater's Prairie Chicken. The land was transferred to the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

in 1972, which brought the refuge up to its current acreage. Many of the Attwater's prairie chickens in the refuge are hatched at captive-breeding programs at

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center Fossil Rim Wildlife Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit conservation center near Glen Rose, Texas. They specialize in the breeding of endangered species, public education, scientific research and natural land management. The facility has over 1,000 ...

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...

, SeaWorld San Antonio, Abilene Zoo,

Caldwell Zoo The Caldwell Zoo is an zoo located in the city of Tyler, Texas. It features animals from all over the world. The Caldwell Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aqua ...

Houston Zoo The Houston Zoo is a zoological park located within Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, United States. The zoo houses over 6,000 animals from more than 600 species. It receives 2.1 million visitors each year and is the second most visited zoo i ...

, and San Antonio Zoo. Chicks are fitted with a

radio transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

and released at the refuge once they are capable of independent survival. To maintain the prairie ecosystem, the refuge staff does prescribed burns of annually in January or February. The burns help invigorate the grasses by removing dead stems, and control the growth of brush and invasive species of plants. The staff also converts formerly cultivated land in the refuge back to prairie by replanting native grasses. Over 250 species of birds in addition to Attwater's prairie chicken have been observed in the refuge. Some of these include the

fulvous whistling duck The fulvous whistling duck or fulvous tree duck (''Dendrocygna bicolor'') is a species of whistling duck that breeds across the world's tropical regions in much of Mexico and South America, the West Indies, the southern United States, sub- ...

black-bellied whistling duck The black-bellied whistling duck (''Dendrocygna autumnalis''), formerly called the black-bellied tree duck, is a whistling duck that breeds from the southernmost United States, Mexico, and tropical Central to south-central South America. In the ...

white-tailed hawk The white-tailed hawk (''Geranoaetus albicaudatus'') is a large bird of prey species found in tropical and subtropical environments of the Americas. Description The white-tailed hawk is a large, stocky hawk. It is close in size to the Swainso ...

crested caracara The crested caracara (''Caracara plancus'') is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is found from the southern United States through Central and South America to Tierra del Fuego. It was formerly placed in the genus ''Polyborus''. Descrip ...

scissor-tailed flycatcher The scissor-tailed flycatcher (''Tyrannus forficatus''), also known as the Texas bird-of-paradise and swallow-tailed flycatcher, is a long-tailed bird of the genus ''Tyrannus'', whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds. The kingbi ...

dickcissel The dickcissel (''Spiza americana'') is a small seed-eating migratory bird in the family Cardinalidae. It breeds on the prairie grasslands of the Midwestern United States and winters in Central America, northern Colombia, and northern Venezue ...

roseate spoonbill The roseate spoonbill (''Platalea ajaja'') is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in both South and North America. Taxonomy The roseate spoonbill is sometimes placed in its own ...

anhinga The anhinga (; ''Anhinga anhinga''), sometimes called snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word ''anhinga'' comes from ''a'ñinga'' in the Brazilian Tupi language and means ...

Sprague's pipit Sprague's pipit (''Anthus spragueii'') is a small songbird (passerine) in the family Motacillidae that breeds in the short- and mixed-grass prairies of North America. Migratory, it spends the winters in the southwestern United States and northern ...

, and

sandhill crane The sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis'') is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on ...

. Mammals in the refuge include

plains bison The Plains bison (''Bison bison bison'') is one of two subspecies/ecotypes of the American bison, the other being the wood bison (''B. b. athabascae''). A natural population of Plains bison survives in Yellowstone National Park (the Yellowstone ...

, thirteen-lined ground squirrel,

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological nich ...

nine-banded armadillo The nine-banded armadillo (''Dasypus novemcinctus''), also known as the nine-banded long-nosed armadillo or common long-nosed armadillo, is a mammal found in North, Central, and South America, making it the most widespread of the armadillos. ...

, and

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

American alligator The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the gen ...

s share the ponds with

softshell turtle The Trionychidae are a taxonomic family of a number of turtle genera, commonly known as softshell turtles. The family was erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1826. Softshells include some of the world's largest freshwater turtles, though many can a ...

American bullfrog The American bullfrog (''Lithobates catesbeianus''), often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is a large true frog native to eastern North America. It typically inhabits large permanent water bodies such as swamps, p ...

and upland chorus frog calls are heard in the refuge. Indian paintbrush, bluebonnets, and butterfly milkweed are some of the many wildflowers that bloom in the park. The refuge has an auto tour and two hiking trails. The auto tour loop winds through 5 miles (8 km) of coastal prairie habitat. The Pipit Trail to the Refuge Lake is 1.5 miles. The Sycamore Trail transects of coastal prairie and a section of forest in the Coushatta Creek bottomland. The

San Bernard River The San Bernard River is a river in Texas. Course San Bernard River flows from a spring near New Ulm, TexasTexas Highways http://texashighways.com/travel/item/716-now-open-san-bernard-river to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, some to the so ...

runs on the eastern boundary of the refuge.Phillips, Bob, (foreword). 2008. ''The Roads of Texas.'' MAPSCO Inc. Addison, Texas. 176 pp. ISBN 1-56966-421-8

Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge gallery

File:Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in February.jpg, Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in February File:Dickcissel (Spiza americana), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Dickcissel (''Spiza americana''), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Texas bluebonnets (''Lupinus texensis''), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Refuge Lake in Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Refuge Lake in Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, American alligators (''Alligator mississippiensis''), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Black-tailed jackrabbit (''Lepus californicus''), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, April storm arriving.jpg, Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, April storm arriving File:Meadowlark (Sturnella) Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Meadowlark (''Sturnella'') Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Refuge Lake, Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Refuge Lake, Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Purple gallinule (Porphyrio martinicus), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Purple gallinule (''Porphyrio martinicus''), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, White-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Texas bullnettle (Cindoscolus texanus) and plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Texas bullnettle (''Cnidoscolus texanus'') and plains coreopsis (''Coreopsis tinctoria''), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Northern crested caracara (Caracara cheriway), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge.jpg, Northern crested caracara (''Caracara cheriway''), Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge File:Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in November.jpg, Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in November

References

External links

Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge
{{authority control Protected areas of Colorado County, Texas National Wildlife Refuges in Texas Protected areas established in 1972 National Natural Landmarks in Texas