Umbrella Species: Greater Sage Grouse

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 “core-habitat” strategy, pioneered in part by Audubon, which aims to limit development on lands most critical to the species’ survival. Conserving the sage-grouse, an “umbrella” species, helps protect a wide array of other wildlife that rely on the same habitat. Here’s a look at some of the plants and animals likely to benefit from greater-sage grouse conservation.

Birds

Brewer’s sparrow

Loggerhead shrike

Sage sparrow

Sage thrasher

Vesper sparrow ma

Western burrowing owl

Mammals

Kit fox

Merriam’s shrew

Mule deer

Pronghorn

Pygmy rabbit

Sagebrush vole

White-tailed jackrabbit

Wyoming ground squirrel

Other Vertebrates

Common sagebrush lizard

Great Basin spadefoot

Striped whipsnake

Plants

Big sagebrush

Flatspine stickseed

Fringed sagebrush

Hood’s phlox, or spiny phlox

Hooker’s sandwort

Maiden blue-eyed Mary

This story ran in the March-April issue as "Steppe by Steppe."