Specifically, these are Attwater's Prairie Chickens, and they are only around because of zoos. One of those species we can say have been saved by captivity.
At the very few zoos that have them (all in Texas I think), they seem to do ok. On this trip I also did a behind the scenes tour of Fossil Rim and the off exhibit area we visited included several large breeding pens for this species. (See photos in the Fossil Rim gallery). Our tour guide said there are five zoos that breed them for release and that the wild population is entirely dependent upon captive born releases and will likely never be self sustaining.
