Populations of lesser prairie-chickens are proposed for listing as threatened or endangered. Lesserprairie-chickens require relatively intact, large grassland dominated habitats for population persistence. Successful conservation efforts require knowledge of potential landscape thresholds and grassland patch configuration affecting lesser prairie-chicken populations. We will use existing population survey, lek location, and data from >700 previously marked lesser prairie-chickens to determine the potential for the presences of large-scale landcover thresholds that influence occupancy and persistence of lesser prairie-chickens as well as testing effects of gradients of grassland composition and configuration within landscapes on population abundance, lek occurrence, and demographic rates.
