"U.S. wildlife authorities listed the Gunnison sage grouse as threatened on Wednesday, disappointing environmental activists who wanted the species given greater protection, and politicians who did not want the federal government involved.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last year proposed giving the ground-dwelling bird, which only exists in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, the more at-risk designation of "endangered."

But it said conservation efforts by the two states, as well by American Indian tribes, local communities, private landowners and others had helped reduce the threats to the bird enough to give it "the more flexibly protected status" of threatened."

Daniel Wallis reports for Reuters November 13, 2014. [2]