Heath Hen
Encyclopedia
The Heath Hen was a distinctive subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken
, Tympanuchus cupido, a large North America
n bird
in the grouse
family, or possibly a distinct species.
Heath hens lived in the scrubby heathland barrens
of coastal North America
from southernmost New Hampshire
to northern Virginia
in historical times, but possibly south to Florida
prehistorically. The prairiechickens, Tympanuchus
species, on the other hand, inhabited prairie
s from Texas
north to Indiana
and the Dakotas, and in earlier times in mid-southern Canada
.
Heath hens were extremely common in their habitat during Colonial times, but being a gallinaceous
bird, they were hunted by settlers extensively for food. In fact, many have speculated that the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving dinner featured heath hens and not wild turkey
. By the late 18th century, the heath hen had a reputation as poor man's food for being so cheap and plentiful; somewhat earlier Thomas L. Winthrop
had reported that they lived on the Boston Common
(presumably when it was still used to graze cows etc.) and that servants would sometimes bargain with a new employer for not being given heath hen for food more often than two or three days a week.
Very similar to the Greater Prairie-Chicken of the Great Plains
, but slightly smaller (Pearson, 1917), the length of the bird was approximately 17 inches (43 cm) and weight was about two pounds (900 gm). A specimen weighing three pounds was claimed by Alexander Wilson
but that figure was not verified by later ornithologists (Pearson, 1917, Forbush, 1927). Several key plumage characteristics separated the heath hens from their Great Plains counterparts: heath hens generally displayed a strong reddish hue in their plumage, especially in their crop area, and much thicker barring throughout the breast and sides. Their pinnae (horns) were generally pointed, and tails were a greyish-brown.
Owing to intense hunting pressure, the population declined rapidly. Perhaps as early as the 1840s, at any rate by 1870, all heath hens were extirpated on the mainland. There were about 300 left on the island of Martha's Vineyard
, off Massachusetts
, but by 1890 this number had declined to 120-200 birds, mainly due to predation by feral
cats and poaching
. By the late 19th century, there were about 70 left. These were protected by a hunting ban and by the establishment in 1908 of the "Heath Hen Reserve" (today the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest
), and the population rapidly grew to almost 2000: by the mid-1910s, observing the birds on their lekking grounds
had become something of a tourist attraction. However, a destructive fire during the 1916 nesting season, severe winters, an unusual influx of predatory goshawks, inbreeding
, an excess number of male individuals and apparently an epidemic of blackhead disease
, which might have been transmitted by poultry
, brought the numbers down quickly; after a last recovery to 600 in 1920, the population began its final decline.
In 1927, only about a dozen were left - a mere two being females - despite being afforded the best protection according to contemporary science; that number had declined to a handful, all males, by the end of the year. After December 8, 1928, apparently only one male survived (Gross, 1931), lovingly nicknamed "Booming Ben". He was last seen on his traditional lekking ground between West Tisbury
and today's Martha's Vineyard Airport
on March 11, 1932 - early in the breeding season -, and thus presumably died, about 8 years old, days or only hours afterwards from unknown causes.
Heath hens were one of the first bird species that Americans tried to save from extinction
. As early as 1791, a bill "for the preservation of heath-hen and other game" was introduced in the New York State legislature. Upstate New York
representatives misinterpreted the bill when it was read as an act to protect "Indians
and other heathen"; Although the legislation was passed, it turned out to be unenforceable.
Although the effort to save the heath hen from extinction was ultimately unsuccessful, it paved the way for conservation of other species. Ironically, the establishment of the reserve on the open shrubland of what was then called the Great Plain in the Vineyard may have accelerated the heath hen's extinction. Fires were a normal part of the environment, but with the attempt to suppress fires instead of enforcing ecological succession
with controlled burn
s, open habitat quality decreased and undergrowth accumulated until a normally limited fire would have disastrous consequences, as it did in 1916. Lack of awareness of the region's historical fire ecology
also led the state legislature to require firebreak
s when protecting the heath hen.
Realizing the degradation that has affected the State Forest (and although it does hold remarkable biodiversity
, prevents it from being utilized to its full potential), reestablishment of the original shrubland/heath/woods mosaic and eventual introduction of the closely related Greater Prairie Chickens as an "umbrella species
" that serves as an indicator of good habitat quality has been discussed since the late 1990s.
haplotype
comparison between heath hen specimens and prairie-chickens (Palkovacs et al., 2004) brought the unexpected result that all heath hens tested formed a group very distinct from mainland birds, being most similar genetically to Greater Prairie Chickens from Wisconsin
. A more recent study (Johnson and Dunn, 2006) of the same parameter verified these results, but disagreed in the placement of the heath hen respective to its relatives, suggesting a closer relationship with the Lesser Prairie Chicken
instead.
However, Johnson and Dunn caution against reading too much into these results: while the Lesser Prairie Chicken is considered a distinct species and the genetically apparently equally distinct Heath Hen would thus likewise deserve species status. mtDNA haplotypes in small populations that have undergone bottlenecks
are likely to show higher divergence than they would judging from taxonomic status alone (Johnson et al., 2003; see also genetic drift
). Thus, given the fact that all heath hen specimens from known localities studied by Johnson and Dunn are Martha's Vineyard birds - where the population may never have exceeded several thousand due to the limited space and limited genetic exchange with the mainland - it is possible that the low genetic diversity and apparent distinctness of the Heath Hen are an artifact of the small number of useful specimens, all from the same close-knit population.
Prairie chickens were indiscriminately introduced to the Eastern Seaboard after the Heath Hen was gone from the mainland, but failed to thrive. There exist a considerable number of supposed Heath Hen specimens in public collections today, but many - all mainland specimens and those with insufficient locality information - cannot be unequivocally assumed to be Heath Hens. For example, a mere 7 unequivocal Heath Hen eggs - equivalent to a very small clutch
(Luther, 1996) - are known to be held in public collections today. That the genus
Tympanuchus apparently evolved rapidly and therefore has high morphological but low genetic distinctness between taxa further complicates research.
It is also important to note that while introductions of the Greater Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) were occurring, true heath hens (Tympanuchus cupido cupido) are distinct enough in morphological features to be separated from the Greater Prairie Chicken. Taking a generous starting date of ~1810 when introductions could have started, and taking into account that Lewis and Clark did not even return from their expedition until 1806, gives roughly a 60-year period of possible introductions. From an evolutionary biology aspect, in a 60, or even 100-year timeframe, a species like the Greater Prairie Chicken would not have been able to evolve to the point where he would so closely resemble the native Heath Hen that he could not be distinguished.
A prime example of this would be in opposing the Lesser Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) which differs from the Greater Prairie Chicken in being smaller, lighter, and having less distinct barring, to the heath hen, which was smaller, darker, and had more distinct barring. Meaning that the Lesser Prairie Chicken can be readily distinguished from the Greater Prairie Chicken both morphologically and genetically (much like the Heath hen) even if he were found in an area that the Greater Prairie
Chicken inhabited.
The apparent distinctness of the species and the failure of the early introductions raises the question of whether the Heath Hen was uniquely (by comparison with its relatives) adapted to the more oceanic climate
of its former area of occurrence, and in consequence, whether a future attempt to establish a population of the western birds on Martha's Vineyard could be bound to fail, possibly even by competing for funding and other resources jeopardizing the extant but much declined populations of the prairie-chickens. Clearly, more research is necessary, for example by analyzing mainland specimens to determine whether they can be assigned to a taxon from molecular and morphological characters.
Greater Prairie Chicken
The Greater Prairie Chicken or Pinnated Grouse, Tympanuchus cupido, is a large bird in the grouse family. This North American species was once abundant, but has become extremely rare or extinct over much of its range due to habitat loss. There are current efforts to help this species gain the...
, Tympanuchus cupido, a large North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
in the grouse
Grouse
Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes. They are sometimes considered a family Tetraonidae, though the American Ornithologists' Union and many others include grouse as a subfamily Tetraoninae in the family Phasianidae...
family, or possibly a distinct species.
Heath hens lived in the scrubby heathland barrens
Pine barrens
Pine barrens, pine plains, sand plains, or pinelands occur throughout the northeastern U.S. from New Jersey to Maine as well as the Midwest and Canada....
of coastal North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
from southernmost New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
to northern Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
in historical times, but possibly south to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
prehistorically. The prairiechickens, Tympanuchus
Tympanuchus
Tympanuchus is a small genus of birds in the grouse family. It contains three species:* Sharp-tailed Grouse, Tympanuchus phasianellus* Greater Prairie-Chicken, Tympanuchus cupido* Lesser Prairie-Chicken, Tympanuchus pallidicinctus...
species, on the other hand, inhabited prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
s from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
north to Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
and the Dakotas, and in earlier times in mid-southern Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Heath hens were extremely common in their habitat during Colonial times, but being a gallinaceous
Galliformes
Galliformes are an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding domestic or game bird, containing turkey, grouse, chicken, New and Old World Quail, ptarmigan, partridge, pheasant, and the Cracidae. Common names are gamefowl or gamebirds, landfowl, gallinaceous birds or galliforms...
bird, they were hunted by settlers extensively for food. In fact, many have speculated that the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving dinner featured heath hens and not wild turkey
Turkey (bird)
A turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, commonly known as the Wild Turkey, is native to the forests of North America. The domestic turkey is a descendant of this species...
. By the late 18th century, the heath hen had a reputation as poor man's food for being so cheap and plentiful; somewhat earlier Thomas L. Winthrop
Thomas L. Winthrop
Thomas L. Winthrop was a Massachusetts politician who served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1826 to 1833....
had reported that they lived on the Boston Common
Boston Common
Boston Common is a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as the "Boston Commons". Dating from 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States. The Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street, Park Street, Beacon Street,...
(presumably when it was still used to graze cows etc.) and that servants would sometimes bargain with a new employer for not being given heath hen for food more often than two or three days a week.
Description
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
, but slightly smaller (Pearson, 1917), the length of the bird was approximately 17 inches (43 cm) and weight was about two pounds (900 gm). A specimen weighing three pounds was claimed by Alexander Wilson
Alexander Wilson
Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator.Wilson was born in Paisley, Scotland, the son of an illiterate distiller. In 1779 he was apprenticed as a weaver. His main interest at this time was in writing poetry...
but that figure was not verified by later ornithologists (Pearson, 1917, Forbush, 1927). Several key plumage characteristics separated the heath hens from their Great Plains counterparts: heath hens generally displayed a strong reddish hue in their plumage, especially in their crop area, and much thicker barring throughout the breast and sides. Their pinnae (horns) were generally pointed, and tails were a greyish-brown.
Extinction
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
, off Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, but by 1890 this number had declined to 120-200 birds, mainly due to predation by feral
Feral
A feral organism is one that has changed from being domesticated to being wild or untamed. In the case of plants it is a movement from cultivated to uncultivated or controlled to volunteer. The introduction of feral animals or plants to their non-native regions, like any introduced species, may...
cats and poaching
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
. By the late 19th century, there were about 70 left. These were protected by a hunting ban and by the establishment in 1908 of the "Heath Hen Reserve" (today the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest
Manuel F. Correllus State Forest
Manuel F. Correllus State Forest is a Massachusetts state forest located on Martha's Vineyard. The forest borders Martha's Vineyard Airport on three sides and is chiefly in the towns of West Tisbury and Edgartown...
), and the population rapidly grew to almost 2000: by the mid-1910s, observing the birds on their lekking grounds
Lek (animal behaviour)
A lek is a gathering of males, of certain animal species, for the purposes of competitive mating display. Leks assemble before and during the breeding season, on a daily basis. The same group of males meet at a traditional place and take up the same individual positions on an arena, each occupying...
had become something of a tourist attraction. However, a destructive fire during the 1916 nesting season, severe winters, an unusual influx of predatory goshawks, inbreeding
Inbreeding
Inbreeding is the reproduction from the mating of two genetically related parents. Inbreeding results in increased homozygosity, which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits. This generally leads to a decreased fitness of a population, which is...
, an excess number of male individuals and apparently an epidemic of blackhead disease
Blackhead disease
Blackhead disease is a commercially important avian disease that affects chickens, turkeys and other poultry birds. The disease carries a high mortality rate and primarily affects the liver and cecum. It is a form of histomoniasis which is transmitted by the protozoan parasite Histomonas meleagridis...
, which might have been transmitted by poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
, brought the numbers down quickly; after a last recovery to 600 in 1920, the population began its final decline.
In 1927, only about a dozen were left - a mere two being females - despite being afforded the best protection according to contemporary science; that number had declined to a handful, all males, by the end of the year. After December 8, 1928, apparently only one male survived (Gross, 1931), lovingly nicknamed "Booming Ben". He was last seen on his traditional lekking ground between West Tisbury
West Tisbury, Massachusetts
West Tisbury is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,467 at the 2000 census. Along with Chilmark and Aquinnah, West Tisbury forms "Up-Island" Martha's Vineyard.- History :...
and today's Martha's Vineyard Airport
Martha's Vineyard Airport
Martha's Vineyard Airport is a public airport located in the middle of the island of Martha's Vineyard, three miles south of the central business district of Vineyard Haven, in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. This airport is owned by Dukes County and lies on the border between the...
on March 11, 1932 - early in the breeding season -, and thus presumably died, about 8 years old, days or only hours afterwards from unknown causes.
Heath hens were one of the first bird species that Americans tried to save from extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
. As early as 1791, a bill "for the preservation of heath-hen and other game" was introduced in the New York State legislature. Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
representatives misinterpreted the bill when it was read as an act to protect "Indians
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
and other heathen"; Although the legislation was passed, it turned out to be unenforceable.
Although the effort to save the heath hen from extinction was ultimately unsuccessful, it paved the way for conservation of other species. Ironically, the establishment of the reserve on the open shrubland of what was then called the Great Plain in the Vineyard may have accelerated the heath hen's extinction. Fires were a normal part of the environment, but with the attempt to suppress fires instead of enforcing ecological succession
Ecological succession
Ecological succession, is the phenomenon or process by which a community progressively transforms itself until a stable community is formed. It is a fundamental concept in ecology, and refers to more or less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community...
with controlled burn
Controlled burn
Controlled or prescribed burning, also known as hazard reduction burning or Swailing is a technique sometimes used in forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. Fire is a natural part of both forest and grassland ecology and controlled fire can be a tool for...
s, open habitat quality decreased and undergrowth accumulated until a normally limited fire would have disastrous consequences, as it did in 1916. Lack of awareness of the region's historical fire ecology
Fire ecology
Fire ecology is concerned with the processes linking the natural incidence of fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects of this fire. Many ecosystems, such as the North American prairie and chaparral ecosystems, and the South African savanna, have evolved with fire as a natural and necessary...
also led the state legislature to require firebreak
Firebreak
A firebreak is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebreak may occur naturally where there is a lack of vegetation or "fuel", such as a river, lake or canyon...
s when protecting the heath hen.
Realizing the degradation that has affected the State Forest (and although it does hold remarkable biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
, prevents it from being utilized to its full potential), reestablishment of the original shrubland/heath/woods mosaic and eventual introduction of the closely related Greater Prairie Chickens as an "umbrella species
Umbrella species
Umbrella species are species selected for making conservation related decisions, typically because protecting these species indirectly protects the many other species that make up the ecological community of its habitat. Species conservation can be subjective because it is hard to determine the...
" that serves as an indicator of good habitat quality has been discussed since the late 1990s.
Taxonomy
This discussion has spawned several research projects to find out more about the heath hen and its habitat. A first mtDNA D-loopD-loop
In molecular biology, a displacement loop or D-loop is a DNA structure where the two strands of a double-stranded DNA molecule are separated for a stretch and held apart by a third strand of DNA. The third strand has a base sequence which is complementary to one of the main strands and pairs with...
haplotype
Haplotype
A haplotype in genetics is a combination of alleles at adjacent locations on the chromosome that are transmitted together...
comparison between heath hen specimens and prairie-chickens (Palkovacs et al., 2004) brought the unexpected result that all heath hens tested formed a group very distinct from mainland birds, being most similar genetically to Greater Prairie Chickens from Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. A more recent study (Johnson and Dunn, 2006) of the same parameter verified these results, but disagreed in the placement of the heath hen respective to its relatives, suggesting a closer relationship with the Lesser Prairie Chicken
Lesser Prairie Chicken
The Lesser Prairie Chicken, Tympanuchus pallidicinctus, a species in the grouse family, is slightly smaller and paler than its near relative the Greater Prairie Chicken...
instead.
However, Johnson and Dunn caution against reading too much into these results: while the Lesser Prairie Chicken is considered a distinct species and the genetically apparently equally distinct Heath Hen would thus likewise deserve species status. mtDNA haplotypes in small populations that have undergone bottlenecks
Population bottleneck
A population bottleneck is an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing....
are likely to show higher divergence than they would judging from taxonomic status alone (Johnson et al., 2003; see also genetic drift
Genetic drift
Genetic drift or allelic drift is the change in the frequency of a gene variant in a population due to random sampling.The alleles in the offspring are a sample of those in the parents, and chance has a role in determining whether a given individual survives and reproduces...
). Thus, given the fact that all heath hen specimens from known localities studied by Johnson and Dunn are Martha's Vineyard birds - where the population may never have exceeded several thousand due to the limited space and limited genetic exchange with the mainland - it is possible that the low genetic diversity and apparent distinctness of the Heath Hen are an artifact of the small number of useful specimens, all from the same close-knit population.
Prairie chickens were indiscriminately introduced to the Eastern Seaboard after the Heath Hen was gone from the mainland, but failed to thrive. There exist a considerable number of supposed Heath Hen specimens in public collections today, but many - all mainland specimens and those with insufficient locality information - cannot be unequivocally assumed to be Heath Hens. For example, a mere 7 unequivocal Heath Hen eggs - equivalent to a very small clutch
Clutch (eggs)
A clutch of eggs refers to all the eggs produced by birds or reptiles, often at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest.In birds, destruction of a clutch by predators, , results in double-clutching...
(Luther, 1996) - are known to be held in public collections today. That the genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Tympanuchus apparently evolved rapidly and therefore has high morphological but low genetic distinctness between taxa further complicates research.
It is also important to note that while introductions of the Greater Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) were occurring, true heath hens (Tympanuchus cupido cupido) are distinct enough in morphological features to be separated from the Greater Prairie Chicken. Taking a generous starting date of ~1810 when introductions could have started, and taking into account that Lewis and Clark did not even return from their expedition until 1806, gives roughly a 60-year period of possible introductions. From an evolutionary biology aspect, in a 60, or even 100-year timeframe, a species like the Greater Prairie Chicken would not have been able to evolve to the point where he would so closely resemble the native Heath Hen that he could not be distinguished.
A prime example of this would be in opposing the Lesser Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) which differs from the Greater Prairie Chicken in being smaller, lighter, and having less distinct barring, to the heath hen, which was smaller, darker, and had more distinct barring. Meaning that the Lesser Prairie Chicken can be readily distinguished from the Greater Prairie Chicken both morphologically and genetically (much like the Heath hen) even if he were found in an area that the Greater Prairie
Chicken inhabited.
The apparent distinctness of the species and the failure of the early introductions raises the question of whether the Heath Hen was uniquely (by comparison with its relatives) adapted to the more oceanic climate
Oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
of its former area of occurrence, and in consequence, whether a future attempt to establish a population of the western birds on Martha's Vineyard could be bound to fail, possibly even by competing for funding and other resources jeopardizing the extant but much declined populations of the prairie-chickens. Clearly, more research is necessary, for example by analyzing mainland specimens to determine whether they can be assigned to a taxon from molecular and morphological characters.
External links
- Comparative Analysis between the Heath Hen and Greater Prairie Chicken
- Birds of a Very Different Feather - Article by Tom Dunlop, Martha's Vineyard Magazine, Sep/Oct, 2004.
- All About Birds retrieved 11 February 2007
- http://heathhen.webs.com/