Nutrient Reserve Models for Post-breeding Lesser Prairie-chicken

We developed and evaluated 7 least-squares regression models to estimate body fat and protein reserves from external measurements of post-breeding male and female lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). For males, protein was adequately modeled (R2 = 0.60), but attempts to model body fat were unsuccessful. For females useful fat (R2 = 0.92), log fat (R2 = 0.74), condition index (R2 = 0.58), and protein (R2 = 0.74) models were derived. These models can be used to compare post-breeding lesser prairie-chicken nutrient reserves among populations and habitats, without sacrificing the birds sampled.