Question: How does the evolution of a key adaptation affect niche breadth during an adaptive radiation? Organisms: Cenozoic horse and camel species, as well as Pleistocene ungulates. Predictions: Niche breadth theoretically could increase, decrease or remain the same as attainment of a key adaptation facilitates a niche shift. Simpson predicted a decrease in niche breadth (ecological specializa...

Herbivory by domestic and wild ungulates can dramatically affect vegetation structure, composition and dynamics in nearly every terrestrial ecosystem of the world. These effects are of particular concern in forests of western North America, where intensive herbivory by native and domestic ungulates has the potential to substantially reduce or eliminate deciduous, highly palatable species of asp...

Collection of scat samples is common in wildlife research, particularly for genetic capture-mark-recapture applications. Due to high degradation rates of genetic material in scat, large numbers of samples must be collected to generate robust estimates. Optimization of sampling approaches to account for taxa-specific patterns of scat deposition is, therefore, necessary to ensure sufficient sampl...

1. Grassland restorations often lack rare forb and grass species that are found in intact grasslands. The possible reasons for low diversity include seed limitation, microsite limitation and a combination of both. Native ungulates may create microsites for seedling establishment in tallgrass prairie restorations by grazing dominant species or through trampling activities, but this has never bee...

Please cite this article in press as: Beschta, R.L., Biol. Conserv. (2009), doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2009 Large predators potentially can help shape the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, yet strong evidence of top-down herbivore limitation has not been widely reported in the scientific literature. Herein we synthesize outcomes of recent tri-trophic cascades studies involving the ...

Cattle are a known reservoir of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. The prevalence and stability of Shiga toxin and/or Shiga toxin genes among native wild ungulates in Idaho were investigated. The frequency of both Shiga genes and toxin was similar to that reported for Idaho cattle ( approximately 19%).