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Save a Chicken, Drill a Well

'Habitat Exchange' Could Keep Oil Flowing While Protecting Wild Prairie Fowl

SLAPOUT, Okla.—The rolling prairies around this tiny ranch town in the Oklahoma Panhandle might soon be home to an experiment aimed at preserving the habitat of both football-sized fowl and oil-drilling rigs.

The area occupied by the brownish birds, known as lesser prairie chickens, spans portions of five states but has shrunk so much that the federal government has said it might classify them as threatened or endangered as early as March. Such a listing would complicate companies' efforts to develop large oil deposits under...