It’s pretty amazing how much of unfortunate male Roundasaurus Leks was left after the Gyrfalcon killed him. Jen and Marcella were quick to get back to the lek and grab the bird before the falcon or any other animal else had a chance to eat much of it. Below are a few shots of what they found [IF YOU MAY BE UNEASY ABOUT SEEING DISSECTED ANIMALS, BLOOD, OR BODY PARTS, DO NOT SCROLL DOWN.
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Jennifer and Brecken get started on a make-shift table. Gloves recommended for this type of work.
(Most of) the syrinx, the sound producing organ. The yellow is a muscle that only male sage-grouse have out of all game-birds (at least as far as we know).
The gizzard was absolutely packed with sagebrush leaves. Surprisingly no traces of other plants, even though the (relatively) mild wet winter has greened things up a bit already.
There were still a lot of intact leaves. Jen was able to show us how some leaves are partially snipped from the plant, while others are cut down ot the stem. We will be looking for both types of foraging traces on plants when we examine diet quality later this season.
A male's testis (left) and brain (right). I'll leave this here without comment.