BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - The state’s greater sage grouse population is in crisis after state wildlife officials did not find any male grouse during their annual surveys in 2025.

The upland bird had its heyday in the state in the 1950s. Multiple factors have led to fluctuations in the population since then, but now hardly any remain.

A healthy male sage grouse population is a safe indicator that the upland birds are in a good place.

Surveyors count the males they see in leks— dancing grounds where males perform to attract females.

In the early 1980s, game officials counted between 270 and 350 males annually in southwestern North Dakota. Numbers have dwindled ever since.

But 2007 is when the sage grouse populations began taking a major hit after the West Nile Virus infected the species,

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