Sharp-tailed Grouse Lekking Documentary - Dancing at Sunrise

Through the seasons, the film follows sharp-tailed grouse as they survive brutal winters, evade predators, and gather each spring on ancestral leks where males battle, display, and court the watching females. Around them, other prairie inhabitants—from owls to unseen nest raiders—share a landscape shaped by ice, fire, bison, and time itself. Yet the real conflict is quieter: habitat loss, warming temperatures, and altered weather patterns steadily erode the mixed-grass prairie that sustains them. Healthy grasslands can still shelter chicks and sustain life, but fragmentation and underfunded conservation threaten that balance. What appears timeless is actually precarious, and the birds’ sunrise dance becomes not just a ritual of survival, but a measure of whether the prairie will endure alongside them. Learn how to give to game bird science: https://projectuplandfoundation.org Learn more about Sharp-tailed Grouse: https://projectupland.com/category/gr... Video and Photography: Seth Owens Executive Producers: Jennifer Wapenski & A.J. DeRosa Producers: Gabby Zaldumbide, Jennifer Wapenski, & A.J. DeRosa Script: Dr. Lance McNew, Seth Owens, A.J. DeRosa, Gabby Zaldumbide, & Jennifer Wapenski Editing: A.J. DeRosa Narration: A.J. DeRosa