60 Nebraskaland • March 2021
A Conservation
Dream Come True
A man-made prairie-chicken
lek fi nds success
By Renae Blum
t was a calm March morning when Dan Leuenberger fi rst
heard it: the echoing calls of greater prairie-chickens.
Climbing a hill on his Johnson County farm, he spotted
a fl ock of about 20 birds gathered for mating season. Each
spring, males congregate on leks, or display grounds, to
perform mating rituals that have made the species an icon
of the prairie. They stomp, leap, spin in circles, infl ate orange
air sacs on their neck and raise feathers on their head, all in
hopes of attracting females.
Seeing the birds was an exciting moment for Leuenberger.
The previous year, he had set out to do something
conservation professionals say is rare: creating a successful
prairie-chicken lek on private property from scratch.
A Vision for Bird Habitat
Leuenberger's interest in creating game bird habitat goes
back to his childhood, when he started hunting. Leuenberger
is now 77 years old.
"Hunting has always been very, very important to me,
whether it's birds, deer, whatever," he said. "I like to hunt.
And I think hunting has made my awareness of nature
much stronger."
When you fi rst start hunting, your goal is to harvest
I
