Dolleye Grouse
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| Click images to enlarge. Above: male in courtship display. Below: male and female. |
Dolleye
Grouse, Campogallus
leucophthalamus L 50-60 cm, WS 60-75
cm, Family: Phasianidae
IUCN Status: Vulnerable (VU)
Description:
Chicken-like
bird with plump body, short legs, small head, and small bill. Extremely
well-camouflaged. Body sandy-brown overall with extensive and intricate light
and dark markings. Males have orange tails, a dark patch of feathers on the
neck, and distinct white plumes extending from the eyes. In display males fan eye
plumes into large white circles that surround the eyes, erect the tail
feathers, and puff their necks. Females are similar, but slightly smaller with
a dull-brown and striped tail and lacking the eye plumes.
Voice:
Displaying
males cluck and bark often. Females also cluck, though mostly to communicate
with chicks. Both sexes will occasionally bark and chuck, and when taking
flight often emit high-pitched screeches.
Range and Habitat:
Range
limited to the interior prairie. They were historically also found in the Twin
River Basin but were extirpated in the 19th century. A small
distinct and separate population exists on East Francis Island. Dolleye Grouse
prefer arid and open, treeless habitat like shrubland, grassland, and
chaparral, but can be found in sparse woodland or savannah.
Discussion:
The
Dolleye Grouse, named for the distinct facial courtship plumage of breeding
males, is a medium sized grouse of grassland and other open ecosystems. It is
the second largest of the four endemic grouse species but the largest in its
range, not overlapping with the forest-adapted Spotted Grouse. Like three of
the four Novasolan endemic grouse, Dolleye Grouse are the only members of their
genus, Campogallus, meaning “meadow/field chicken”. Taxonomists are
unsure where in the grouse family tree the Dolleye belongs, but the most
supported theory currently is that it is most closely related to Sharp-tailed
Grouse of mainland North America in the genus Tympanuchus, though they
would have diverged over 2 million years ago.
Like
many grouse species, including its closest relatives and the Spotted Grouse,
the Dolleye Grouse is a lekking species, meaning it engages in lekking as a
breeding strategy. During the spring males will congregate at breeding areas
called leks and compete for mates through courtship displays. Females explore
the leks, judging the males’ fitness and eventually deciding with which males
to breed. In display, males puff their neck feathers, including a small patch
of darker, firm feathers on the sides of their lower necks, and erect their
tails in a sort of angled fan. Most noticeably they fan out a ring of white
feathers surrounding each eye so that the entire face is hidden behind the
large white disks outlined in black, showing only the dark eyes. They also bark
and cluck frequently, and run up to inspecting females to strut, keeping the
females to their sides while they strut to best show off their eye fans and
ruffled necks. Males and be quite persistent and follow certain females for some
time before returning to their designated spot on the lek. Males also fight one
another for the attention of the females and for access to the best display
spots. Only the best or most fit males will be chosen, so most males in a given
year never breed and only about 10-20 percent of males at a given lek will
breed with nearly 100 percent of the females. Leks can range in size, hosting
anywhere from two to two hundred males at a time and easily three times as many
females. Once females have mated, they leave the lek and build nests, usually
within three kilometers of the lek. Females build the nest and raise chicks;
males have no part in rearing offspring. Leks are located in large, flat areas
with extremely sparse vegetation, often on top of rises or ridgelines. Leks are
returned to year after year, so some known lek locations have been used by
grouse for hundreds of years. Arrowheads used by indigenous hunters can often
be found in abundance surrounding leks, suggesting people have been hunting
lekking grouse for hundreds, if not thousands, of years at some of these same
spots.
Dolleye
are found throughout Novasola’s interior prairie, as well as the Fairweather
Sound coastal chapparal. A small, isolated population can be found in the arid
regions along the north side of East Francis Island, and this population is
considered its own subspecies. Historically, Dolleye Grouse were present in the
Twin River valleys as well, though they were extirpated in the 19th
century due to habitat loss from development and overhunting. Dolleye avoid
human activity, especially human structures, and habitat loss or fragmentation
is still the leading cause of population declines. Ranching activity,
transformation of land for agriculture, installation of large machinery for
energy development, and expansion of transportation infrastructure all
contribute to the issue. Dolleye Grouse show extremely high site fidelity,
meaning they use and return to the same areas throughout their lifespan,
regardless of whether the area is beneficial to their breeding success or
survival. That is how leks have remained in the same locations for so long, and
it’s also why they are so vulnerable to threats of habitat loss. Dolleye are
likely to return to the site of their breeding lek even after the area had been
destroyed by development, or increasingly commonly, wildfire. Despite this site
fidelity, as Dolleye habitat continues to be developed and destroyed, more
grouse seem to be coping by using less suitable habitat, including more wooded
areas and agricultural fields. Though Dolleye Grouse are the second-most common
native grouse, they are facing the most extreme population declines and most
researchers and managers fear that should things not change drastically, they
will soon reach a point they will be labelled an endangered species. Despite
this, the state of Novasola still recognizes them as a game species and has an,
albeit limited, hunting season for Dolleye, which are still a popular target among
fowlers.
Dolleye
Grouse are well adapted to grasslands, shrublands, and other open ecosystems. Though
most common in grass and shrubland, they may less commonly be found in sparse
woodland, parkland, or savannah. They select for areas with dense shrub cover
or tall grass so they can remain hidden in cover, with the exception of leks
which are more exposed. They prefer areas with complex topography like hills
and valleys but avoid true cliffs. They prefer mesic areas like wet seeps and
drainages during the late summer and fall, but prefer arid and exposed areas
like ridgelines and rocky flats during the winter and spring. Their diet also
shifts between seasons. During the winter Dolleye eat mainly buds, seeds, grain,
fruits, and herbaceous material. During the spring and summer they eat forbs
and grasses, flowers, and insects, especially grasshoppers and caterpillars.
Chicks exclusively eat insects for their first two months.
Like
other grouse, Dolleye use their extreme camouflage to hide from predators,
often sitting still until the last moment before exploding into flight in a excited
flurry of motion and noise. Though they spend most of their time on the ground,
Dolleye Grouse have been known to fly great distances. One grouse was observed
flying over fifty kilometers in one night. Dolleye are the most migratory of
endemic grouse, migrating each year between distinct breeding, brood rearing,
and wintering grounds.
Dolleye
Grouse are an important cultural species to most Yukandaluk tribes, one of the
most culturally important birds next to the raven, magpie, eagle, and crane,
and is often used as a mascot of the Yukandaluk people in a similar way the
Sloan’s Owl is used by Eastern tribes. It features on the logo for the
Yukandaluk Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife. D’aqagludarcidaq to
the Yukandaluk, the grouse is revered as a totem or manifestation of Agludar,
the Creator God. Eyes are a prominent symbol used in relation to the creator,
who is said to gaze over all of creation, and even feature as a symbol on the Yukandaluk
Nation flag. It’s no wonder then why the male grouse’s courtship display would
become associated with Agludar. Yukandaluk belief holds that the grouse are a
part of Agludar and act as his eyes on earth. Tribes emulate the grouse’s
courtship displays during ritual ceremonies with elaborate costumes. The
Yukandaluk Nation is the largest single contributor to Dolleye conservation.
The
strutting Dolleye Grouse is a fabulous, if also comical, bird emblematic of Novasola’s
grasslands, from its ecosystem to its people and its conservation challenges.
The potential listing of Dolleye as an endangered species, which is expected to
happen within the next thirty years, weighs heavily on all prairie people,
ranchers, hunters, birders, conservationists, and indigenous groups alike.
“Most
surprising of the bird is its winter adaptations. The Dolleye is most at home
during the winter months and employs all manner of tricks to shield itself from
the icy cold. Like other grouse the Dolleye develops those fingery growths
called pectinae along their toes which act much the same as snowshoes,
preventing the birds from sinking into deep snow. More impressively though they
share a behavior with its brother the ptarmigan: they tunnel through deep snow.
In areas of especially deep snow or tall drifts, Dolleye with build tunnels
under the surface which allow them to continue to forage and move, protected
from the cold air and harsh winds above. In this way they spend severe winters
as a predominantly subnivean species. A man could walk through a wintery
expanse with no knowledge that a flock of Dolleye could be just below their
feet. And he may never know, but for when a skittish Dolleye flushes from its
hidden world mere inches from the man in a cacophonous explosion sure to freeze
the man sooner than any blizzard wind.” – Native Birds of Novasola, 1912
“There
are few finer sights I’ve pleasured to experience this journey yet than that of
the lekking Dolleye. This morning I rose well before sunrise to explore the prairie
to the northeast of camp. After two hours of walking I came to a quiet valley
bottom and could hear distinctly the barking sounds of distant grouse. I
cresting the east rise and was greeted by a wonderful view of the next ridge,
which was as I expected littered with the small shapes of courting Dolleye silhouetted
against the rising sun. I was close enough that I could observe the birds
unaided. I counted at least forty cocks, strutting and flashing their eyes to
females I had a harder time seeing through the fiery morning light. Mornings
like this, bathed in orange and alive with the most amazing fowl, are perhaps
the best the Fastwaters has to offer.” – Expedition logs, May 4, 1902