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