A mating dance party with robotic sage grouse

Chris Morgan (0:00)

Hi all, I'm excited to share this episode with you. It's a little different. I hope you like it.

Just a quick plug for our Patreon. We have tons of extra content to share with you. For just a few bucks a month, you'll find extended interviews and bonus footage from me in the field. You can find the link in the show notes. Thanks as always for listening.

Matt Martin (0:20)

Mr. Morgan.

Chris Morgan (0:22)

Hi. All looks all very studio-like and official. Look at that, Matt on the microphone. Yeah.

This feels different.

Matt Martin (0:31)

It does.

Chris Morgan (0:33)

Hey, everyone. We have something a little bit different for you today. Good morning, Matt.

Matt Martin (0:38)

Good morning, Chris.

Chris Morgan (0:41)

I want to explain to our listeners, Matt.

Whenever you hear me with a polar bear cub in my arms or chasing a mountain lion up a tree, Matt's been right beside me with a microphone in hand because he's one of two producers at The Wild. We've been on a lot of adventures together, haven't we, Matt?

Miles Crisula (0:59)

We have.

Matt Martin (1:01)

This is a whole new adventure.

Chris Morgan (1:03)

It is because for this episode, it's his turn to be sitting down in front of the microphone.

Miles Crisula (1:08)

Yeah.

Chris Morgan (1:09)

How do you feel about that?

Matt Martin (1:10)

I don't have the accent though. That's the only downside of this situation. I don't know if I can pull off a British accent.

Chris Morgan (1:18)

We can work on that. Maybe that will be the next one. Yeah, that will be fun. A whole episode of you with your English accent. Yes, that I got to hear. So, you recently got back from this trip to Jackson Hole in the big state of Wyoming. And, you know, I was pretty disappointed I couldn't go with you because I was busy on a different assignment. But this was something that couldn't wait. So we had to jump on it because nature doesn't wait around for us to be ready. You went to Grand Teton National Park to see how park rangers and biologists there are trying to save a very unique bird, the sage grouse. It's a fascinating story that involves jet aeroplanes, a couple of teenage engineering geniuses, a few thousand gallons of toxic chemicals and some sweet robots.

From KUOW in Seattle and Chris Morgan Wildlife, welcome to The Wild.

SPEAKER_4 (2:29)

Alright, it's our pleasure to welcome everyone to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, local time is 1101

Matt Martin (2:34)

So Chris, have you ever flown into the Jackson Hole Airport?

Chris Morgan (2:37)

Oh, God, it's a long time ago. I used to go to film festivals there, yeah.

Matt Martin (2:41)

Yeah, so like when you're flying into the Jackson Hole Airport, it's probably one of the most beautiful runways, spots I've ever seen. You're coming down into this valley, and you just have the Grand Teton Mountains out your window, these like rocky, craggly peaks covered in snow. And I thought this was interesting. It's the only airport that's inside a national park. It's inside Grand Teton National Park.

Chris Morgan (3:03)

Wow, I didn't know that.

Matt Martin (3:05)

But there's something even more interesting in the view that's happening here. Underneath the airplane when you're landing, on the runway, there's sage grouse that have started to use this runway for their mating dances.

If you're unfamiliar with a sage grouse, they're maybe a little bigger than like a normal chicken.

Dustin Havil (3:23)

They fly a little bit.

Matt Martin (3:24)

They don't fly a lot. But, you know, a large bird that can kind of fly that's around on a runway, and airplanes landing and taking off, like, you know, that's not a good combination.

Chris Morgan (3:37)

It's a bizarre sounding scene, yeah. Not a good combination, especially if you're a sage grouse, I would imagine.

Matt Martin (3:42)

Yeah, and I don't know if you remember this, Chris. A few years ago, there was the miracle on the Hudson.

Chris Morgan (3:46)

Yeah.

Matt Martin (3:47)

Where the plane took off in New York and birds hit the engines, and then they had this miraculous landing on the Hudson River. So when that happened, that got the FAA thinking, okay, like, this is a problem. Like birds by airports is an issue, and they identified Jackson Hole Airport as one of the places that had a potential problem.

Chris Morgan (4:07)

Oh, was it because of these grouse?

Matt Martin (4:08)

Yeah, the grouse.

And I went to go see what the rangers and biologists are doing to fix this problem. And there was a bit of a rush to see this before the end of the mating season in the spring. And that's a big part of the story that I'll get to in a little bit. But right after I landed, the first thing I did was hop into a truck with Dustin Havil. He's the chief operating officer at the airport. And we headed out to the end of the runway.