Source of Food
The Whitebark Pine is an important source of food for many granivorous birds and small mammals, including most importantly the Clark's Nutcracker, the major seed disperser of the pine. Clark's Nutcrackers each cache about 30,000 to 100,000 each year in small, widely scattered caches usually under 2 to 3 cm of soil or gravelly substrate. Nutcrackers retrieve these seed caches during times of food scarcity and to feed their young. Cache sites selected by nutcrackers are often favorable for germination of seeds and survival of seedlings. Those caches not retrieved by time snow melts contribute to forest regeneration. Consequently,Whitebark Pine often grows in clumps of several trees, originating from a single cache of 2–15 or more seeds. Douglas Squirrels cut down and store Whitebark Pine cones in their middens. Grizzly Bears and American Black Bears often raid squirrel middens for Whitebark Pine seeds, an important pre-hibernation food. Squirrels, Northern Flickers, and Mountain Bluebirds often nest in Whitebark Pines, and elk and Blue Grouse use Whitebark Pine communities as summer habitat.
Read more about this topic: Whitebark Pine
Famous quotes containing the words source of, source and/or food:
“The source of poetry that
seeing the clock stopped, says,
The clock has stopped
that ticked yesterday so well?”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“It is thus tolerance that is the source of peace, and intolerance that is the source of disorder and squabbling.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)
“It’s so easy during those first few months to think that the problems will never end. You feel as if your son will never sleep through the night, will always spit up food after eating, and will never learn to smile—even though you don’t know any adults or even older children who still act this way.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)