What fuels wildlife migrations across Yellowstone?

A new paper from the lab was led by postdoc Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun and published in Royal Society Open Science: "Body size modulates the extent of seasonal diet switching by large mammalian herbivores in Yellowstone National Park." The paper is free to read and download.

Beth used cutting-edge genetic and GPS-tracking technologies to test age-old ideas about why animals select the foods that they do. The work involved collaboration from experts in wildlife ecology and management, genomics, remote sensing, and botany -- with contributions from the National Park Service, several citizen science organizations, and funding from NSF as well as the Department of Interior. 

As Beth summarized in an interview with News@Brown, we have come to more accurately understand wildlife populations as a collection of animals that can respond individualistically to changes in their environment. From summer to winter, animals have to radically change the kinds of foods they eat. But it's not just that: they also have to take care to update their overall foraging strategy as they shift from foraging socially as part of a large herd to foraging more independently for their own unique sets of resources. 

The news summary by Corrie Pikul is available here: How do coexisting animals find enough to eat? Biologists unlock insights into foraging habits in Yellowstone