Estimated lesser prairie-chicken population sizes annually from 2012 – 2018 and 2020 in the 2011 estimated occupied range of the lesser prairie-chicken in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Ascertaining estimates of wildlife population size is valuable information for natural resource agencies in the management of harvested and non-harvested species (Rabe et al. 2002). Acquiring precise and unbiased estimates of population size requires either a complete census or probabilistic sample of subunits with which to infer population size (Johnson 2002); however, limited funding and staffing have often precluded implementation of these sampling designs. The result has been the development of population indices to monitor population trends or to estimate a minimum population size. The limitation of such data is the unknown relationship to population size. Further, it must be assumed that population indices track population dynamics (McKelvey and Pearson 2001). These assumptions can be problematic when knowing the population size is critical to decision makers either in the context of harvest or population recovery of sensitive species.

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