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Article: Love on the Lek.(mating of the sage grouse)
- Article from:
- Sports Afield
- Article date:
- March 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Hearst Communications, reprinted with permission of Hearst. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IT DOESN'T FEEL much like spring yet in the high country. A cold wind at dawn blows a fine dust of snow across the valley floor, and the aspens in the foothills are a good two months away from leafing out. But the deep snow is off the flats by now, and already the sage grouse have begun to gather on the lek, the same lek to which they return year after year, that their ancestors have used for thousands of years in the timeless ritual of the breeding display.
Indeed, the Plains Indian tribes learned their original dances from watching the sage grouse, as well as their close cousins, the sharptail grouse and the prairie chicken, on their strutting grounds. Each of ...