File:The bison of Yellowstone National Park (1973) (20385493825).jpg

Title: The bison of Yellowstone National Park
Identifier: bisonofyellowsto00meag (find matches)
Year: 1973 (1970s)
Authors: Meagher, Margaret Mary; United States. National Park Service
Subjects: American bison; Mammals
Publisher: (Washington) : U. S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
102 Bison of Yellowstone National Park
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 45. Sedge growth along the banks of the Firehole River provides forage for bison and elk moving in the open water. Total use by all bison of areas where thermal influence alleviated otherwise more severe winter con- ditions involved was more than the use of thermally active sites. In the Hayden, Pelican, and Firehole val- leys, the amount of use of sedge bottoms with lessened snow depths, and of ice-free streams, indicated that thermal influence was important in maintaining win- tering populations. In Lamar, where winters are comparatively less severe, the lack of thermal influences may not affect numbers of bison which can winter there. Observations both before and during the study period indicated that specific sites of thermal influ- ence where small, warm, snow- free patches occurred, sometimes in conjunction with the activity of a few hot springs or fumaroles, were of great importance to the bison population during brief but critical periods. During the pro- longed very cold spells of the se- vere winter of 1955-56, Jim Strad- ley (1968 pers. comm.) observed mixed herd groups in the scat- tered small, warm areas west of Astringent Creek in the Pelican area, in the Mud Volcano area of Hayden Valley, and just east of the Firehole River (Pocket Basin) in the Lower Geyser Basin (Firehole). During the study, herd groups were seen in these same Astrin- gent Creek areas of Pelican (Fig. 46) late one winter (1968) after a stormy period and presumably were there the few other times

Note About Images