How Grand Teton National Park Is Using Papier-Mâché Birds to Protect the Greater Sage-Grouse

Papier-mâché is a common art medium, but that’s not all it’s good for. According to Popular Science, Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming is using the material in an attempt to protect a vulnerable bird species from planes.

The bird in question is the greater sage-grouse, a species native to the western United States and Canada. One of its key characteristics is the pair of yellow chest sacs on the male, which it displays during its mating behavior to attract females. Unfortunately, one of the greater sage-grouse’s preferred locations for the courtship dance isn’t ideal for safety. An Instagram post from Grand Teton says that 32 of the birds were killed by aircraft at Jackson Hole Airport between 1990 and 2013. The majority of deaths occurred during the summer months when hens and chicks are most active.

Now the National Park Service is using an unlikely tool to help save the birds: arts and crafts. They collaborated with the Teton Raptor Center (a bird-of-prey conservation nonprofit), Lori Solem (a local artist), and Jackson Hole Middle School art students to create four papier-mâché birds and place them in a 100-acre field south of the runway. The idea is to persuade the species to show off their mating displays in the new location, moving them out of harm‘s way. Cameras will be tracking the experiment‘s progress and success. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notes the greater sage-grouse population has been declining by an average of 2.3 percent per year since the late 1980s. Research shows that habitat loss and fragmentation—often through human activity like construction and energy development—are the main culprits behind the trend.

The greater sage-grouse isn‘t the only bird in danger of aircraft strikes. The Federal Aviation Administration says 96 percent of wildlife strikes in the U.S. involve birds, but other animals, like deer, coyotes, and turtles, have also been hit. 

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