Lesser prairie-chicken habitat selection and survival relative to a wind energy facility located in a fragmented landscape

The overlap of renewable wind energy with the range of lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) raises concern of population declines and habitat loss. Lesser prairie-chickens are adversely affected by landscape change, however, it is unclear how this species may respond to wind energy development. Therefore, managers and wind energy developers are currently tasked with making management or siting recommendations of future wind energy facilities based on lesser prairie-chicken behavioral responses to other forms of anthropogenic development or responses of other grouse species to wind energy development. The current strategy of siting wind turbines in cultivated cropland within lesser prairie-chicken range has not been evaluated for its effectiveness at minimizing potential adverse impacts. We captured 60 female and 66 male lesser prairie-chicken from leks located along a gradient from wind turbines in southern Kansas, USA, from 2017–2021. Over the study period, we collected..., Location data used in resource selection and survival analyses was collected from radio-marked lesser prairie-chicken. , Excel is requried to open the files.Â