Male Sharp-Taled Grouse
The foothills of northern Wyoming’s Big Horn mountains are home to the Sharp-Tailed Grouse and their mating arena known as a “lek”. Thirty male and female Sharp-Tailed Grouse gather on this small baseball diamond sized grassy hilltop. The grouse live in communities with up to two dozen males “displaying” in one Lek. A community’s Lek is used for years… even decades.
Each morning, just before dawn, males stake out territories of less than 10 square meters, on which they dance to attract a mate. When rivals approach a territorial boundary, they quickly move from dancing to a tense face to face stand-off. Male Sharp Taled Grouse battle, their wings fan to make themselves appear larger. Their tails quiver with tension. Males in the lek fight for up to 6 hours each day, repeatedly defending from attacks from all sides.
Battles move fast, with attack and counter-attack going by in a blur of feathers. High speed video, slowing time, reveals these battles to be tactical coordinated combat. Beaks, wings and claws become weapons, used with precision. Fights begin with a stab at the head, with the eye comb a frequent target. This fleshy colorful patch above the eye may be engorged or deflated. Combatants partially expand their eye combs during battle, perhaps signaling their readiness to fight. Injury to the eye comb, may reduce a males attractiveness to the opposite sex.
A defender leaps off the ground to dodge a strike, eyes riveted on his attacker as he prepares and launches a lightning fast counter-attack. Fights move from side to side and up and down. Combatants appear free of gravity as they maneuver in mid-air to maintain balance and position. Failure to evade a lunge, strips a bird of weightlessness. His opponent bites down, holds fast and flips him to the ground. Successful males must stake out and hold exclusive space in which to mate. Only 5-10% of male Sharp Tails on a lek will breed, ensuring that their genes will survive into the future.
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