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Article: `Extinction vortex' charted in prairie chicken Isolated Illinois groups reveal inbreeding dangers before being revived
- Article from:
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
- Article date:
- January 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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For six decades, conservationists in Illinois tried to save the
greater prairie chickens that once covered the state like its sea of
grass. Hunting was banned. Sanctuaries were set up. Predators
were driven away.
Nonetheless, the showy little birds, beloved for their flamboyant
mating rituals, began a headlong population collapse that saw their
numbers fall from 25,000 statewide in 1933 to 2,000 in 1962, to fewer
than 50 in 1993, though they remained abundant in some Midwestern
states.
Now a team of geneticists and ecologists from state agencies and
the University of Illinois has reversed that decline and, for one of
the first times in a wild population, documented how inbreeding and
loss ...