Credit Dorian Anderson/Audubon Photography Awards
Wyoming is a stronghold for the sage grouse. But a new study from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finds the birds are on a long-term decline.
USGS research ecologist Cameron Aldridge and his team compiled data from states across the entire range of the sage grouse. The scientists saw an 80 percent decline in males attending breeding grounds (or leks) since the 1960s.
"Sage grouse are sort of an icon of the West and they represent the intactness or the health of the sagebrush ecosystem," he said. "They've sort of been set on this pedestal as this umbrella that if sage grouse are doing well, so are all the other plants and critters and functions of the sagebrush ecosystem."