Greater Sage-Grouse Will Not Be Listed As Endangered. Can A Land-Use Plan Protect Them?

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Greater sage-grouse. Alan Krakauer/UC Davis

The greater sage-grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, is a hefty, spiky bird best known for its mating rituals. Groups of males sporting yellow throat sacs gather in arenas (called leks) to perform elaborate dances for females. These flashy, charismatic birds once occupied more than 290 million acres of sagebrush in the western United States. But with drilling, mining, ranching, and wildfires, the species lost nearly half its habitat – and their numbers plummeted.