[gentle music] - Announcer: The Wisconsin School of the Air presents Robert S. Ellerson, University of Wisconsin Extension specialist in wildlife management in The Wonderful World of Nature.

This is the last of a series of programs designed for in-school viewing by children in grades 5 through 9.

It's been televised each Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock by the University of Wisconsin Television Station.

Now, Robert Ellerson and The Wonderful World of Nature.

- This, boys and girls, is one of our native Wisconsin citizens.

This bird is the prairie-chicken.

If we were to go up into central Wisconsin in the spring of the year and get out in an open field on a cold, frosty morning, we could see a sight like this.

[prairie-chicken calling] [prairie-chickens squawking] Hi, boys and girls.

What you have seen is a sight that's probably as old as mankind.

It's a sight that the Indians in Wisconsin saw long before any white man came to the United States.

For what you have seen was the courtship display of the pinnated grouse or prairie-chicken.

Now, here in Wisconsin, we have four kinds of grouse.

Grouse are chicken-like birds.

And here in Wisconsin, the four kinds of grouse we have can be divided into two.

The first two birds, grouse, are birds of the forest land.

They are the ruffed grouse and the spruce grouse.

The other two birds live in a somewhat different kind of habitat.

They are sometimes referred to as prairie grouse.

These birds are the sharp-tailed grouse and the pinnated grouse or prairie-chicken.

Now, the type of habitat that these birds live in is very interesting.

If we will go over to the blackboard here, we can take a look at the habitat of the sharp-tailed and the pinnated grouse.

This diagram that we have on the board shows a grassland, which merges gradually into a brushy type of cover and eventually into small trees.

Now, this habitat is divided between these two birds.

The pinnated grouse inhabits the grasslands.

The pinnated grouse is the prairie-chicken.

And this is the bird.

Now, moving over, starting at the edge of the grassland and moving into the brushland and forest land, we find the home of the sharp-tailed grouse.

And this is a sharp-tailed grouse.

Now actually, these two birds are quite similar in appearance.

However, there are certain differences which enable us to separate one from the other.

Coming back to the prairie-chicken or pinnated grouse, in the male birds, we find these long tufts of feathers on the bird's neck, or these are called pinnae, and give the bird its name, pinnated grouse.

Another name for the pinnated grouse, a common name is a square tail, and you notice that the bird's tail is rather blunt and square.

Still another name for the prairie-chicken is yellow-legged.

And if you could see the color of this bird's feet, you would see that it was rather a bright yellow color.

Now what about the sharp-tailed grouse?

The sharp-tailed grouse looks, as I said, rather similar to a prairie-chicken.

The sharp-tailed grouse, as its name implies, has a sharp tail.

Notice how the tail comes down to a sharp point.

And another distinguishing character of the sharp-tailed grouse is the rather diamond-shaped feathers on the bird's breast.

Contrasted with the transverse barring on the breast of the prairie-chicken.

Here you see the two birds together.

Notice the barring on the breast of the prairie chicken and the diamond-shaped feathers on the breast of the sharp-tailed grouse.

You can compare also their tails and see why one is called a square tail and the other a sharp tail.

In other respects, the birds are quite similar except that they do live in somewhat different habitats.

Now, in our programs over the past weeks, we have been talking about the importance of habitat to wildlife.

And today, I would like to talk particularly about the habitat of the prairie-chicken or pinnated grouse.

And I like to talk about the habitat of this bird because on no animal's habitat has the effect of man's activities been so pronounced.

Man's activities in farming and in forestry have had very profound effects on the prairie-chickens of Wisconsin.

But before we go into that, possibly we had better take a look at some of the things that make up prairie-chicken habitat.

And first of all, I'd like to take a look at some typical prairie-chicken habitat in Wisconsin.

One of the things that prairie-chickens demand, and this is rather an intangible thing, is a wide-open horizon.

You notice in this view of prairie-chicken habitat that there is very little obstruction to your view.

You can see clear out to the horizon with very few trees in sight.

This is a picture of prairie-chicken habitat in some of the best chicken habitat in our state.

Now, another thing that prairie-chickens demand and must have as we have indicated in the diagram of their habitat is grassland.

Grassland is of the utmost importance as far as prairie-chickens are concerned.

And in fact, they do not do well unless at least 50% of the area in which they are living is in grassland.

And when we speak about grassland, we don't necessarily mean hay fields of alfalfa or clover, because these do not do for prairie-chickens.

Prairie-chickens are very exacting and demand more or less permanent grasslands.

They need these grasslands for a number of things.

For one thing, they need them for their booming grounds.

And here, you can see a number of prairie-chickens on the booming ground, and they require these in the spring of the year during the mating season.

Prairie-chickens also need grassland for brood rearing and for nesting.

And these grasslands must be permanent grasslands.

They cannot be lands that are plowed periodically.

So prairie-chickens are most exacting in their habitat requirements.

Now, still another thing that prairie-chickens in Wisconsin need and must have is a source of winter food.

This is very important because in the wintertime, much of the prairie-chicken range is buried under deep snow.

In this scene, we can see a number of prairie-chickens feeding in a corn field.

Notice here that in the background, there are some shocks of corn.

And this shock corn furnishes a food supply for these birds in the wintertime when they are in need of it.

Now, I'd like to summarize these habitat requirements of prairie-chickens for you.

The prairie-chickens require 50% or more of grassland in their habitat.

25% more or less of cultivated land to furnish them food and a variety of food both in summer and winter.

And 25% more or less of brushland and forest.

The moment we get more than 25% brushland and forest, the habitat is not quite so suitable for prairie-chickens.

Now, I think it would be interesting if we went back and took a look at the history of prairie-chickens in the state of Wisconsin.

I'd like to have you come back with me to about 1880.

And in 1880, this was roughly the range of the prairie-chicken in Wisconsin.

You notice that the chicken is confined to the southern and southwestern part of Wisconsin.

The dark area on the map is the prairie chicken range.

At this time, back in 1800, this was the area of Wisconsin where the native prairie or grasslands were found.

And the prairie-chickens were confined to this area.

From about 1875 up until about 1920, this was the picture as far as the prairie-chickens were concerned.

There was a very rapid and massive expansion of the birds' range throughout the state of Wisconsin.

During this period, there were prairie-chickens to be found in every single county of Wisconsin.

This period coincided with the period when the forests of Wisconsin were being cut off in the north.

And as some of you probably know, much of this forest land was burned over after the trees were cut, and so that it was left very bare.

Much of the forest land then developed into a grassland, providing a suitable habitat for prairie-chickens.

So the prairie-chickens moved up into northern Wisconsin.

At the same time, their range was more or less shrinking in southern Wisconsin because these prairie lands were very good agricultural lands, and more and more of them were coming under cultivation, and so were becoming less suitable for prairie-chickens.

From about 1920 until 1940, this was the picture as far as prairie-chickens were concerned.

There was a considerable contraction of the range of these birds.

They pulled back and the range began to become fragmented.

Notice that there is very little range in southern Wisconsin at this time, and the range in northern Wisconsin is quite spotty.

This coincided with the development or the regrowth of the forests in northern Wisconsin and also with the continued cultivation of the prairie land in southern Wisconsin.

Notice that in central Wisconsin, there is still rather a large block of prairie-chicken country.

From about 1940 up until the present, this is the picture.

The prairie-chicken range has shrunken very, very considerably.

You notice that the main stronghold of prairie-chickens in Wisconsin today is in the central part of the state.

Now, interesting enough, this area in central Wisconsin was never grassland at all, but was originally a large tamarack swamp or marsh.

And the trees in this marsh were cut off and drainage ditches were dug in the marsh, and the land was drained so that today, this land looks much as you see it in this photograph.

Here, you can see the wide-open expanse of this country.

Mind you, now, this used to be a tamarack swamp, and today, it is a grassland and is farmed.

This area is really the last stronghold of the prairie-chickens in Wisconsin.

The area is located in Portage County and partly in northern Adams County.

These marshes are called the Leola and the Buena Vista marshes.

Actually, it is some of the best prairie-chicken habitat remaining in the United States, but it is small.

Now, what makes it such good chicken habitat?

Well, one of the interesting agricultural developments in this part of the state is the development of a bluegrass seed industry.

Farmers and seed companies maintain large areas of this marsh in bluegrass, and they harvest the seed of this grass for lawn seed.

And of course, this permanent bluegrass sod is the thing that makes this area so suitable for prairie-chickens.

But we cannot be sure that this area will always maintain this type of an agriculture, and the conservation department and the people of Wisconsin are very concerned about prairie-chickens.

And the biologists of the conservation department have developed a prairie-chicken management plan for this Buena Vista marsh area.

In this plan, they are leasing small tracts of land scattered around throughout the marsh and maintaining them as permanent grasslands, where these prairie-chickens can build their nests and rear their young and have their booming grounds.

In addition to these small holdings of grasslands that the conservation department is acquiring and maintaining, the conservation department also plants and leases food patches scattered around the area where the birds may obtain food throughout the winter.

And we certainly all hope that they are successful in maintaining the population of this very, very fine game bird here in Wisconsin, the pinnated grouse.

And now, before I close, I'd like to have you boys and girls have another look at the courtship displays of these two prairie grouse of ours, the sharp-tailed grouse and the pinnated grouse or prairie-chicken.

The sharp-tailed grouse, which you will see first is a bird which gathers in the spring of the year.

The males alone gather on these booming grounds, or in the case of sharp tails, they are called these display grounds.

And they go through a display every morning during the spring of the year.

Along in April is the best time to see them.

The sharp tail sail around like little ships, where their tails stuck straight up in the air and their feet beating a rapid tattoo on the ground.

You'll be able to hear their feet, and it sounds almost like a drum roll.

Then later on, we will see these pinnated grouse, and if you will take a look at this pinnated grouse, like to point out a few things about what these birds do when they go through this courtship display.

These pinnae are erected and stick straight forward, and beneath these pinnae are some bare areas of skin which are a bright orange in color.

And the bird inflates these sacs on the side of its neck and bends down with its tail erect and its wings down, and emits a kind of a hollow, booming sound which you will hear on the film.

So now, let's take a look at the courtship display of the sharp-tailed grouse and the prairie-chicken.

[grouse rumbling] [grouse squawking] This man is a biologist working for the conservation department.

Part of his job is studying these prairie-chickens on their booming ground.

[prairie-chicken calling] And so boys and girls, I hope that all of you sometime in the future will have the opportunity to see these wonderful birds going through these most interesting displays in the spring of the year on their booming grounds.

Until then, so long.

[gentle music] - Announcer: Each Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock, the Wisconsin School of the Air has presented Robert S. Ellerson, University of Wisconsin Extension specialist in wildlife management in The Wonderful World of Nature.

This was the last in a series of programs designed for in-school viewing by children in grades 5 through 9.