The Last Attwatter Prairie Chickens

Personal memory by Nora Chovanec

2017Houston, TX, USA

I got to see the Attwatter Prairie chickens do their mating dance last year in April at the wildlife refuge outside of Houston and it was truly incredible. Tragically, all but a couple of the 40 living in the wild were killed during Hurricane Harvey. But they are working to re-populate the wild community with ones that were in captivity. Seeing the male prairie chicken do his mating dance and work so hard to keep his species alive, in the face of such debilitating habitat loss, was one of the most beautiful and bittersweet moments of my life.