Two weeks ago we received 16 captive bred prairie chickens from the Houston Zoo prairie chicken breeding program. They were brought to the refuge where they were measured, weighed, had blood samples taken for DNA analysis and fitted with new radio collars. After they were processed, the chicks were brought to their new/temporary homes in the acclimation pens that the YCC (youth conservation corp) moved earlier this summer.
These are the first batch of chickens that we have received from the breeding facilities and we will be getting more later this month from San Antonio, Caldwell and Abilene. Since these chicks have been here for 2 weeks the will be released into the wild, tomorrow we will go out in the morning and open all of the doors. We will still continue to place water bowls and food trays twice a day outside of the pens to slowly ween the prairie chickens off of human fed foods and towards native plants. Once they are released, having been fitted with radio collars, the prairie chickens will be monitored by our bird tracking interns to make sure they are still alive.
I also have several videos of the prairie chickens feeding and will put them up on this blog as soon as I figure out how to. stay tuned for more APC updates!
