Fish and Wildlife Service Eyes Listing Of Lesser Prairie Chicken as Threatened

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has begun a review of whether the lesser prairie chicken, a kind of grouse found in the southern plains states, should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The lesser prairie chicken lives in grasslands where farming, oil and gas production, ranching, and mining have contributed to declines in the species’ favored habitats, according to the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The Fish and Wildlife Service used its Nov. 30 announcement of the review to give another push to voluntary measures that might avert listing of the bird.

The wildlife agency ...