Lek like you mean it.

October 15, 2020 11:28 AM

The Grouse podcast dives into the complicated project of protecting the Sage Grouse, via interviews and stories of biologists, ranchers and indigenous people. The Sage Grouse is threatened by oil extraction, overgrazing, ever-expanding wildfires, and cheatgrass, which crowds out the native sage grass. The podcast is also a fascinating reflection on the role of reporting on the environment in an age of catastrophes: The primary reporter, Ashley Ahearn, left Seattle for rural Washington after transformative experiences at Standing Rock.

Here's one of many available videos of Sage Grouse lek displays. And here's some audio uninterrupted by pesky narrators.

Previously Ahearn produced the Sound Escapes podcast, with Gordon Hempton.

posted by kaibutsu (3 comments total)

I thought it was going to be a couple of Australians talking about things they think are excellent.
posted by acb at 11:45 AM on October 15, 2020

TIL what a lek is.

"The term derives from the Swedish lek, a noun which typically denotes pleasurable and less rule-bound games and activities ("play", as by children). English use of lek dates to the 1860s. Llewelyn Lloyd's The Game birds and wild fowl of Sweden and Norway (1867) introduces it (capitalised and in single quotes, as 'Lek') explicitly as a Swedish term."

Towards the end of the linked video:

"She gets to listen to hundreds of these displays and just sit there."

Don't we all know the feeling, Ms Grouse.
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:34 PM on October 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

"Lek" refers to all forms of mating rituals for a variety of animals, including fish and mammals in Swedish.

It's also half of the Danish expression that gave us Lego. (Play well)

The geography of this podcast remain close to my heart, I'll give it a listen.
posted by St. Oops at 1:45 PM on October 15, 2020