A strange-looking bird, the sage-grouse, may now be locally extinct in North Dakota. Conservation organizations are reporting that a recent survey in the state found zero of these birds this year, and that’s after the species has made a steady and marked decline over the past couple of decades.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) recently shared the news to its Our Public Lands Instagram account, writing: “Unless sage grouse migrate into North Dakota from neighboring states, it will be the first state in decades to completely lose its sage grouse population.”
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The Western Watersheds Project wrote that this is what modern-day extinction looks like in realtime. “[It’s] not a sudden collapse, but a slow suffocation,” a blog dedicated to the news reads.
How did we get here?
The greater sage-grouse once numbered in the millions in this region, but the species’ “precipitous decline” is due to several converging factors. According to the Western Watersheds Project, these factors include public lands ranching, oil and gas drilling, climate change, wildfire, cheatgrass (an invasive species), and expanding energy development. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also says the sage-grouse has been in decline since the 1950s due to “the widespread loss, alteration or fragmentation of the vast sagebrush steppe on which this species depends.”
Written about a year ago, this tribute to the declining sage-grouse, a bird that may now be extinct in North Dakota, provides some additional insight into the situation.
On a separate note, look at how weird this bird’s mating display is!
Header stock image by Scott Smith/Getty Images