Although once abundant in native prairie intermixed with oak Quercus spp. woodland, as prairie and woodland habitats were converted to cropland it had to adapt to agricultural habitats (Schroeder and Robb 1993; del Hoyo et al. 1994). Areas of native vegetation are still required for roosting and breeding, and for displaying males which will select lek sites with short grass, usually on elevated ground (Hovick et al. 2015). Most nest sites are in open, grassy habitats such as ungrazed meadows or hayfields (del Hoyo et al. 1994).

Tympanuchus cupido is restricted to prairie intermixed with cropland, primarily in the mid-western states of the USA. The three recognised subspecies vary in status: the Heath Hen T. c. cupido is extinct, and the Attwater's Prairie Hen T. c. attwateri is restricted to small portions of south-east Texas (numbering under 1,000 in the mid-1990s [del Hoyo et al. 1994]) (Schroeder and Robb 1993) and under 70 individuals in the 2010's [M. Morrow per Johnson et al. 2020). The Greater Prairie-chicken (T. c. pinnatus) is extinct or in danger of extinction in 15 states, but numerous enough to be legally hunted in four states (Schroeder and Robb 1993), with the largest remaining populations in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota (del Hoyo et al. 1994). In recent years the species has extended its non-breeding range northward into Canada (D. Svedarsky in litt. 2019)

Conservation Actions Underway
Most management effort has been directed toward improvement of habitat. Effective strategies have included manipulation of grazing pressure, control of burning and establishment of reserves. Removal of encroaching eastern red-cedar (Juniperus virginiana) trees has been identified as an essential activity for population survival (McNew et al. 2012; Raynor et al. 2019). Population reintroduction may be necessary to expand its distribution, particularly where there are no dispersal corridors between occupied and unoccupied habitats (Roy and Gregory 2019), but so far it has had mixed success (Schroeder and Robb 1993; Roy and Gregory 2019). Hunting legislation has frequently been used to protect populations, with mixed success - both T. c. cupido and attwateri were protected. Legislation has been more effective with T. c. pinnatus, perhaps because of its large and diverse distribution (Schroeder and Robb 1993). Lek density was found to be substantially higher in grasslands and wetlands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program scheme (Adkins et al. 2019). Translocations led to a significant increase in mtDNA diversity (Bateson et al. 2014), while population reinforcement lowered the site-specific extinction probabilities (Hardy et al. 2017).

Conservation Actions Proposed
Continue to monitor population trends. Monitor rates of habitat loss and degradation within the species's range. In remaining tallgrass prairie, infrequent burning and grazing (i.e., patch-burn grazing) shows promise for enhancing survival by providing habitat at nesting, brooding and wintering life stages (Winder et al. 2017; Londe et al. 2019). Strictly control hunting, and if survival is confirmed to be higher in unhunted populations, consider banning hunting of the species. Retain/restore corridors of suitable habitat between populations to facilitate dispersal and reduce the stresses associated with a loss of genetic variation. Removal of Ring-necked Pheasants Phasianus colchicus may reduce interspecific competition (del Hoyo et al. 1994).