Nature Conservancy finds endangered greater sage grouse on Sask. property

Biologists have made a discovery on a swath of nativegrassland in southwest Saskatchewan that they are callingexciting, but are also hesitant to talk about.

Mike Burak, with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, says the grouphas found endangered greater sage grouse on a 1,222-hectareconservation area known as the Wideview Complex, next to GrasslandsNational Park.

"We found a couple of individuals in a couple of differentplaces on the property," Burak said in an interview with The
Canadian Press.

"We're not going to release which parts of the property we didfind them on, just because we don't want to give any more away thanwe really have to. But because they are a critically endangeredspecies, it is something to celebrate that we have found them andthey are using the property as habitat."

Environmental groups have warned that the greater sage grouse isin danger of becoming extinct in Canada.

We've decided to put it out there that we've foundthem and hope that people will respect that and not do anythinginappropriate.- Mike Burak, Nature Conservancy of Canada

In late 2013, the Canadian government issued an emergencyprotection order covering nearly 1,700 square kilometres of
federally and provincially-owned land in southeastern Alberta andsouthwestern Saskatchewan to protect the bird's habitat.

Last year, it was reported that numbers of male greater sagegrouse have almost quadrupled since 2014, with nearly 80 male birdsbeing counted in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan -- up from 20 malebirds counted in 2014.

Researchers tight-lipped about numbers

Burak wouldn't say how many greater sage grouse were found in theconservation area. Researchers are worried about people going to theconservation area specifically to find the endangered birds, hesaid.

"Ultimately, we've decided to put it out there that we've foundthem and hope that people will respect that and not do anythinginappropriate, and not try to get tooclose to them or to go out there during inappropriate times of year, like during the springwhen they're breeding or during the nesting season, to disruptthem."

The Nature Conservancy of Canada announced the new conservationarea back in March, but it was too cold to assess species at thetime.

A lot of the species that would use the property through thespring and summer would have migrated away to the southern UnitedStates or even South and Central America, said Burak.

"We needed to wait until everybody was kind of back up here inCanada and set up for the breeding season before we actually go outthere and look for them, just because they don't hang around throughthe winter," he said. "They kind of leave and then they come backup here to nest."

Threatened species found

When researchers did get out to the property, they identified 10different species that are either listed under the federal SpeciesAt Risk Act or that have been assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada on the property.

That includes threatened birds such as Sprague's pipit,loggerhead shrike and common nighthawk.

"It's not very common to find that kind of a variety in closeproximity to each other, so we were just really happy with the
different individual habitat types that we were finding."

He says the findings will be reported to the federal government,which helped fund the purchase of the land, and the provincialgovernment so that it can help track species.