Sage Grouse

Since the late 1970's researchers became aware that the Sage Grouse in the Gunnison Basin, Colorado were unique from Sage Grouse found elsewhere in most of the United States. In 1995, Drs. Clait Braun and Jessica Young proposed that the Gunnison Grouse was a distinct species and along with Drs. Jerry Hupp, Sara Oyler-McCance and Tom Quinn, they published their findings in the scientific journal, the Wilson Bulletin (Young et al. 2000) and were awarded the Edward's Prize for the best major article published by that journal that year. The American Ornithological Union recognized the Gunnison Grouse as a newly named species in 2000 after a review of the scientific data by the AOU Nomenclature Committee which consists of the leading taxonmic specialists in North and Central America. In 2006, the International Ornithological Congress has recommended that the species common name be Gunnison Grouse and that the species previously referred to as Greater Sage-grouse be named Sage Grouse (Gill and Wright 2006).