Historic release bolsters one of Canada's most endangered birds

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Calgary Zoo 

Mar 11, 2019, 11:00 ET

Conservation collaboration benefits greater sage-grouse

For more media materials, please visit:
https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8509351-calgaryzoo-endangered-birds/ 

CALGARY, March 11, 2019 /CNW/ - With the release of 66 greater sage-grouse into the wild, the Calgary Zoo, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and Parks Canada, has significantly boosted one of Canada'smost endangered birds at a time when fewer than 250 remain in their habitat.

This milestone release is the result of a five-year program by the Calgary Zoo, which is working in collaboration with NCC and Parks Canada, with funding support from the Governments of Canada and Alberta.

"These are early days in the urgent effort to save this precious species, but what we have been able to accomplish so far has been truly remarkable," says Dr. Axel Moehrenschlager, Director Conservation and Science, Calgary Zoo. "With the help of many partners, we have built an innovative, multi-year breeding and reintroduction program, which we hope will ensure this iconic prairie bird can flourish for generations to come."

Once common across the western prairie, an estimated 80 per cent of the greater sage-grouse population has disappeared over the past 30 years. Today fewer than 250 wild greater sage-grouse remain in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. The birds were designated as endangered in Canada in 1998 under the Species at Risk Act. The loss, fragmentation and degradation of native grassland habitats are key reasons why the bird is endangered. Other factors are predation and the West Nile virus. Populations are limited to sagebrush grasslands.

Greater sage-grouse recovery project

In 2014, the federal and provincial governments pledged funding to help protect greater sage-grouse, enabling the zoo to begin a dedicated conservation breeding and reintroduction program. The plan was based on recommendations from the international multi-stakeholder Population and Habitat Viability Assessment Workshop for the greater sage-grouse in Canada.

In 2016, the zoo announced the creation of Canada's first-ever greater sage-grouse breeding facility: the Snyder-Wilson Family Greater Sage-Grouse Pavilion. Since then the zoo has established a healthy population of 54 grouse that make up the conservation breeding flock.

Continued

The Calgary Zoo opens breeding facility for rare endangered bird

by NEWS STAFF

Posted Oct 20, 2016 5:44 pm EDT

A state-of-the-art breeding facility – the first of its kind in Canada – has opened in Calgary to help boost the population of an endangered bird: the greater sage-grouse.

The birds were once common in Canada’s prairie region but they are now reaching dangerously low levels with fewer than 400 left across the country, according to information provided by The Calgary Zoo.

In 2013, the federal government announced an emergency order to protect the species.

“I see the greater sage-grouse as an iconic part of our Canadian heritage; a key component of our prairie ecosystem,” states Dr. Axel Moehrenschlager, director of conservation & science, in a news release provided by The Calgary Zoo.

Habitat destruction and human development have caused the wild population numbers to greatly diminish. There are currently 18 sage-grouse in The Calgary Zoo’s new facility.

Source  

California sage-grouse remain genetically diverse, for now

Date: September 16, 2015

Source: Central Ornithology Publication Office

Genetic diversity is essential for a species to be able to adapt to environmental change, and when habitat loss divides a population into small, isolated fragments, that can spell trouble. Northeastern California is at the far western end of the range of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), and the fringe population there is declining due to the ongoing invasion of their sagebrush habitat by cheatgrass and juniper. To determine whether the genetic diversity of birds in the region is suffering as a result, Dawn Davis of the University of Idaho and her colleagues spent three years collecting blood samples from California sage-grouse on their breeding grounds for a new study forthcoming in The Condor: Ornithological Applications. While they found no evidence that individual leks, or breeding sites, in California are genetically isolated from each other, and the overall genetic diversity of the California population was just as high as that in the core of the species' range. However, this doesn't mean that the future of these vulnerable birds is secure.

Every spring, sage-grouse gather at breeding sites called leks, where males put on elaborate displays to attract females. Davis and her colleagues collected blood from 167 grouse at 13 lek sites between 2007 and 2009.Their results suggest that there is a continuing exchange of genes between California leks, and possibly even with the adjacent Nevada population. "Sage-grouse occupy the western edge of their distribution in northeastern California and our study area was dominated by invasive annual grasses and encroaching conifer which has led to declines in sage-grouse populations," explains Davis. "Our study found that despite population declines and habitat loss, leks were not genetically differentiated, which was unexpected."

Continued ....

Nevada Critic: US Plan to Save Bird Strikes 'Death Blow'

A plan by the federal government to protect a wild bird about the size of a chicken in the western United States has brought strong attacks from critics, including ranchers, energy developers, and public officials.

"It's a death blow," Jeff Williams, a commissioner in Elko County, Nev., told The Elko Daily Free Press. “In the rest of the state, it’s a horrible situation ... In Elko County, it’s the whole county. It’s everything we’ve got. It’s recreation, it’s mining, it’s oil, it’s agriculture." 

Read on