Diet segregation in American bison (Bison bison) of Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, USA)
Berini JL and Badgley C. 2017. Diet segregation in American bison (Bison bison) of Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, USA). BMC Ecology. 17(27):1-10
Body size is a major factor in the nutritional ecology of ruminant mammals. Females, due to their smaller size and smaller rumen, have more rapid food-passage times than males and thereby require higher quality forage. Males are more efficient at converting high-fiber forage into usable energy and thus, are more concerned with quantity. American bison are sexually dimorphic and sexually segregate for the majority of their adult lives, and in Yellowstone National Park, they occur in two distinct subpopulations within the Northern and Central ranges. We used fecal nitrogen and stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen from American bison to investigate sex-specific differences in diet composition, diet quality, and dietary breadth between the mating season and a time period spanning multiple years, and compared diet indicators for these different time periods between the Northern and Central ranges.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Berini, John; Badgley, Catherine
- Units
- YELL
- Keywords
- diet composition, diet quality, dietary breadth, fecal nitrogen, food-passage, nutritional ecology, ruminant mammals
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Mammals