Abstract
Over the last century, populations of the Greater Prairie Chicken ( Tympanuchus cupido ) have declined or gone extinct throughout midwestern North America. In Wisconsin the population declined by 50% from 1951 to 1961 and has remained at low ( 1500 individuals ) but fluctuating levels for the past 40 years. We examined historic ( 1951 ) and contemporary ( 1996–1999 ) populations of prairie chickens in Wisconsin to determine whether there was a loss of genetic variation following the population bottleneck. We compared microsatellite DNA variation at six loci in historic ( 1951, n = 47 ) and contemporary ( 1996–1999, n = 87 ) populations. Population mean heterozygosity and number of alleles per locus were significantly lower in the late 1990s than in 1951. This loss of genetic variation following a population bottleneck is consistent with the results of a similar study in Illinois, but we found no evidence of a reduction in hatching success.