"Warming and habitat loss diminished sage grouse populations 80 percent since 1965, putting them on the brink of an endangered listing. Western states, the federal government and energy and ranching interests are struggling to prevent that."
"OWYHEE CANYONLANDS, Ore.—Peering through a spotting scope in this remote section of eastern Oregon, Skyler Vold quietly muttered “Oh man” over and over.
In his sight was an open clearing surrounded by rolling hills of sagebrush where 22 greater sage-grouse males performed their famed and elaborate mating rituals. Every year, the sage-grouse come to locations like these, called leks. In these communal breeding grounds, males waddle around and pop their inflatable white neck pouches to reveal their inner yellowish-brown air sacs while making a cooing sound audible from a distance, all in an attempt to court a mate. It was too late in the mating season for the dancers to have much luck that morning, with most females already laying eggs, and by 8 a.m., they had returned to their homes among the brush from which they derive their name.
The 22 males spotted were the most ever recorded at the site, according to Vold, the sage-grouse conservation coordinator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. It’s one of the country’s last strongholds of sagebrush, a landscape that is rapidly disappearing due to climate change, invasive species, human development and wildfires that are growing bigger and hotter.
“Their populations currently are a fraction of what they used to be,” Vold said."
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