Extirpated bird

The Greater Prairie-Chicken, a grassland bird, doesn’t live here anymore.

During the committee’s recent meetings in Ottawa, it was determined that the bird has not been seen in Canada since 1987. In 1900, by contrast, it was estimated that there were at least a million prairie-chickens breeding in Canada.

New DNA evidence has also concluded that the prairie-chicken is a species native to North America and has been around for about 9,000 years. It had been thought the bird came over with European settlers.

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