Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates

The frontier images of America embrace endless horizons, majestic herds of native ungulates, and romanticized life-styles of nomadie peoples. The images were mere reflections of vertebrates living in harmony in an ecosystem driven by the unpre­ dictable l

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Edited by M.M. Caldwell, Logan, USA G. Heldmaier, Marburg, Gennany O.L. Lange, Würzburg, Gennany H.A. Mooney, Stanford, USA E.-D. Schulze, Bayreuth, Gennany U. Sommer, Kiel, Gennany

Ecological Studies Volumes published since 1989 are listed at the end ofthis book.

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Fritz L. Knopf Fred B. Samson Editors

Ecologyand Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates With 59 illustrations

,

Springer

Fritz L. Knopf National Biological Service 4512 McMurry Avenue Ft. Collins, CO 80525-3400 USA

Fred B. Samson U.S. Forest Service RegionOne Missoula, MT 59807 USA

Cover illustration: The cover illustration was prepared by Dale E. Crawford.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ecology and conservation of Great PlaiDs vertebrates/[edited by] Fritz L. Knopf and Fred B. Samson. p. cm.-(Ecological studies; 125) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Vertebrates-Ecology-Great Plains. 2. Wildlife conservation-Great PlaiDS. I. Knopf, Fritz L. ß. Samson, Fred B. ID. Series: Ecological studies: v. 125. QL606.52.G74E36 1996 596'.045'0978-dc20 96-18352

Printed on acid-free paper. © 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. in 1997 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1997 All rights reserved. This work rnay not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written perrnission ofthe publisher Springer Science+Business Media, LLC except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrievaI, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use of general descriptive narnes, trade narnes, trademarks, etc., in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, rnay accordingly be used freely by anyone. Production coordinated by Princeton Editorial Associates and managed by Francine McNeill; manufacturing supervised by Jeffrey Taub. 1YJ>eset by Princeton Editorial Associates, Princeton, NJ.

9 8765432 1 SPIN 10523644 ISBN 978-1-4419-2851-1 ISBN 978-1-4757-2703-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-2703-6

Preface

The frontier images of America embrace endless horizons, majestic herds of native ungulates, and romanticized life-styles of nomadie peoples. The images were mere reflections of vertebrates living in harmony in an ecosystem driven by the unpredictable local and regional effects of drought, frre, and grazing. Those effects, often referred to as ecological "disturbanees," are rather the driving forces on which species depended to create the spatial and temporal heterogeneity that favored ecological prerequisites for survival. Alandscape viewed by European descendants as monotony interrupted only by extremes in weather and commonly referred to as the "Great American Desert," this country was to be rushed through a