Caldwell Zoo’s prairie chicken to be featured on endangered species stamps

TYLER — One of the animal ambassadors from the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler is set to be featured in a new set of Forever stamps by the USPS. The collection was released May 19th and will feature an image of an Attwater’s prairie chicken from the Caldwell Zoo, according to our news partner KETK. The rest of the collection will display photos of endangered animals selected from Joel Sartore’s National Geographic Photo Ark project, which has documented over 13,000 different species. Attwater’s prairie chickens are native to the southern parts of both Texas and Louisiana, but they are so endangered, they can only be found in two places within our state: the national refuge and the Goliad private reserve.

The Caldwell Zoo established a dedicated breeding center for these native Texas birds in 1992 and has been committed to the cause ever since. Because of their endangered status, while raising the chicks, careful attention is given to their genetics. Each one that is hatched and raised gets their own special identification number, which is placed on a blue band on the chick’s leg.