A bison bull breaking aspen saplings and eating aspen in the Lamar Valley in northern Yellowstone National Park. Overstory aspen trees have died and fallen to the ground as seen in the photo, and tall saplings have grown since the early 2000s. Broken stem (IMAGE)
Caption
A bison bull breaking aspen saplings and eating aspen in the Lamar Valley in northern Yellowstone National Park. Overstory aspen trees have died and fallen to the ground as seen in the photo, and tall saplings have grown since the early 2000s. Broken stems of aspen saplings are visible in the foreground, and silhouetted against the body of the bison (photo by Luke Painter, 2020). These broken stumps show that saplings recently covered much more of the stand area, but they have been broken and killed by bison, and bison continue to break the remaining saplings. These saplings were taller than 4 meters, no longer vulnerable to suppression by elk or bison eating their top branches, but bison broke them off at a low height.
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A bison bull breaking aspen saplings and eating aspen in the Lamar Valley in northern Yellowstone National Park. Overstory aspen trees have died and fallen to the ground as seen in the photo, and tall saplings have grown since the early 2000s. Broken stems of aspen saplings are visible in the foreground, and silhouetted against the body of the bison (photo by Luke Painter, 2020). These broken stumps show that saplings recently covered much more of the stand area, but they have been broken and killed by bison, and bison continue to break the remaining saplings. These saplings were taller than 4 meters, no longer vulnerable to suppression by elk or bison eating their top branches, but bison broke them off at a low height.
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