"As Denny got older, though, he saw fewer sage grouse. These distinctive, chicken-sized birds with their thick white chest feathers and brown, sunbeam-shaped tail feathers are culturally significant to the Shoshone-Bannock people, a rich source of song, dance, stories and nourishment. Denny noticed that other animals, including ground squirrels and mule deer, were declining as well. More farms were replacing the sagebrush that covered the foothills near the reservation. More cattle grazed the area, too. As their numbers increased, so did drought and wildfires."
"By his late teens, Denny knew he wanted to pursue a career in fish and wildlife biology. He learned about the conflicts between sage grouse and cattle. The birds return faithfully to their open mating grounds, or leks, every spring to perform one of North America's most striking mating displays: Males gulp a gallon of air and strut, strumming their stiffened chest feathers with their wings to create two loud swishes,"
Lytle Denny grew up scouting high-desert sagebrush on Shoshone-Bannock ancestral homelands, learning where blue, ruffed, sharp-tailed and greater sage grouse lived. Family hunting centered on quiet movement through sagebrush to startle birds and find big game. Over time, sage grouse became rarer alongside declines in ground squirrels and mule deer as farms replaced sagebrush and cattle grazing increased. Increased cattle coincided with more drought and wildfires. Sage grouse rely on open leks for elaborate spring mating displays, but livestock use of leks and related disturbances disrupted these rituals and contributed to population declines.
Read at High Country News
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