Descriptions of sage grouse leks have traditionally embodied androcentric typecasts. The birds made their dramatic debut on the ornithological scene with a male displaying his fully inflated sacs on the cover of Nature magazine in 1932. The author of the paper, R.Bruce Horsfall, took great delight in describing the males’ ‘queer antics’ but assumed their ‘rubbery plops’ must be directed at one another, and not the females.
