The greater sage-grouse is famous for its elaborate courtship displays, with males strutting, fanning their tail feathers, and popping the yellow air sacs on their breasts to create a whup sound that can be heard up to two miles away. These charismatic birds, which are strongly tied to the sagebrush steppe landscape of western North America, are threatened by habitat degradation, largely due to farming, invasive plants, and, increasingly, oil and gas development. To protect the bird in the 11 states where it occurs, the federal government has adopted a 鈥渃ore-habitat鈥 strategy, pioneered in part by 约炮视频, which aims to limit development on lands most critical to the species鈥 survival. Conserving the sage-grouse, an 鈥渦mbrella鈥 species, helps protect a wide array of other wildlife that rely on the same habitat. Here鈥檚 a look at some of the plants and animals likely to benefit from greater-sage grouse conservation.
Birds
Western burrowing owl
Mammals
Kit fox
Merriam鈥檚 shrew
Mule deer
Pronghorn
Pygmy rabbit
Sagebrush vole
White-tailed jackrabbit
Wyoming ground squirrel
Other Vertebrates
Plants
Big sagebrush
Flatspine stickseed
Fringed sagebrush
Hood鈥檚 phlox, or spiny phlox
Hooker鈥檚 sandwort
Maiden blue-eyed Mary
This story ran in the March-April issue as "Steppe by Steppe."