Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) morphology, parasitology, lek behaviour and abundance, and genotyping in Wyoming from 1987 to 1990.

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a charismatic North American prairie bird species. The greater sage-grouse engages in a unique breeding behaviour called lekking, where males participate in communal breeding displays on historic breeding grounds called leks. These breeding behaviours have led to exaggerated sexual selection, and the development of male secondary sexual characteristics such as brightly coloured combs above the eye, noisy mating dances (aka struts), and large inflatable air sacs on the male’s chests. However, parasites such as lice (Lagopoecus gibsoni, Goniodes centrocerci) and avian malaria (Plasmodium pediocetii) have been known to affect the reproductive success of males by decreasing strutting frequency and affecting female mate choice. This makes the greater sage-grouse an intriguing species in which to explore the relationship between sexual selection and host-parasite dynamics.
From 1987-1990, several graduate students in the Dr. Mark Boyce lab at the University of Wyoming conducted field experiments to assess the effects of morphology, secondary sexual characteristics, and parasites on the strutting and mating success of greater sage-grouse, as well as auxiliary experiments investigating sage-grouse egg and chick development, and genotyping. Juvenile and adult grouse were captured on the lek, body measurements and characteristics were recorded, and blood, fecal, ectoparasite, and cecal samples were taken to assess the condition of the grouse. Grouse were also observed displaying on the lek, and lek attendance and strutting and copulation frequency was recorded. These data were stored on binders and floppy disks until they were modernized in 2023 as part of the Living Data Project Data Rescue. Included in the rescued data are lek observations and attendance, strutting frequency, and copulations from 1987-1990, morphology and parasite load of captured grouse from 1987-1990, egg and chick development from wild and captive populations in 1990, and genotyping performed using grouse blood samples collected during captures. The data are cleaned and standardized using tidy data principles and are in .csv format. (2023-07-14)