Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
my garage startle me, amphibians and reptiles rarely thrive in our presence.
Insects are more complicated; some that, like birds, can l y and others with
rapid evolutionary rates indeed share subirdia.
The birds of Yellowstone National Park and New York City's Central Park
have impressed me with their similarities. Both parks host specialists and
generalists, predators and prey, seed and insect eaters, and those requiring
deadwood and downed wood. The mammals I have encountered in these two
localities, however, have been vastly dif erent. In Yellowstone I have seen a
dozen species, including the entire hoofed assemblage native to the western
United States and most of their predators. Bison, pronghorn antelope, big-
horn sheep, and elk graze together in mixed herds on the l ats above the Gar-
diner River. The lowlands are i lled with mule and white-tailed deer. Coyotes,
ears cocked, pounce through the last bits of snow, trying to crash in on the
voles that traveled unseen on subnivian runways. Foxes seek mice and scav-
enge with coyotes on the elk and bison killed by wolves and winter. Grizzly
and black bears mostly sleep, still hibernating out of sight during my late-
winter visit. I have seen none of these animals in Manhattan. Coyotes are rare
but present in Central Park. Sometimes true exotics are seen, such as the white
Bengal tiger that strolled through in 2004. But on my days in the park the only
mammals I saw were humans, horses, dogs, and eastern gray squirrels. Rac-
coons, opossums, and rabbits may have been watching me from under cover,
but even these urban exploiters would i nd it dii cult to survive in the crowded
park. Mice and rats surely were there, and possibly were abundant, with few
nocturnal predators. The message from my brief visits was clear: Yellowstone's
mammal community rivaled that of Africa's Serengeti, but Central Park's was
a mess.
 
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