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Yellowstone's Northern Range - Greater Yellowstone Science ...

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ELK AND<br />

OTHER<br />

WILDLIFE<br />

SPECIES<br />

ELK AND OTHER HERBIVORES: RESEARCH SUMMARY<br />

The nOlthern <strong>Yellowstone</strong> elk herd more than quadrupled in numbers<br />

between 1968, the time of their release from in-park reductions, and 1988<br />

(Appendix B). This increase has given rise to COncerns in the popular press<br />

(Chase 1986) and in scientific circles (Kay 1990, Wagner et aJ. 1995a) that elk are<br />

pushing other ungulate species off the northelTI range.<br />

As mentioned earlier, competition between species is a fact of life in nature. The<br />

existence of competition in itself should not be regarded as proof that something is<br />

wrong. Dozens of birds species and thousands of insect sp~cies compete for common<br />

resources on the northern range, but the varying fortunes of these competing species are<br />

not commonly thought of as something in need of repair. Thus, though it is true that the<br />

ungulates of the northern range do to varying extents specialize in food selection, they<br />

also overlap, some greatly. This leaves the difficult question of how much overlap and<br />

competition can be tolerated under the National Park Service's mandates to preserve<br />

native species. As discussed in chapters Four and Six this is a complex question. In this<br />

section, research findings on this subject are reviewed.

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