Mountain Wildlife - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 407

“Pleistocene grotesque giants.” Compare the naked elephants and rhinos of the trop-
ics with the woolly mammoth and rhinos of the north; the modestly antlered and furred
deer of the tropics with the extravagant Irish elk, moose, reindeer, or wapiti; or the
small tropical bears with the Kodiak or polar bears. Strong climatic oscillation greatly
favors the evolution of spectacular novelty, while tropical conditions favor the long-term
accumulation of tried, successful adaptations. It thus is no accident that so spectacular
a creature as the giant sheep or argali ( Ovis ammon ), with its enormous horns, occu-
pies the highest mountains in Asia, while primitive ancestral forms, such as the serow
( Capricornis sumatrensis ), are found in the hot lowland jungles of Southeast Asia. This
progression of adaptations is well illustrated in the deer family, and also in humans
(Geist 1978, 1998).
FIGURE 8.3 Mountain goats are found almost exclusively in rocky areas. (U.S. National Park Service.)
Nutrient Availability
The availability of nutrients and amount of productivity generally decrease with eleva-
tion. This is largely a function of temperature and length of the growing season, coupled
with the poor quality of most mountain soils and much exposed rock. The long dark
winter of high latitudes has a counterpart in the higher reaches of midlatitude moun-
tains where the surface is cut off from the sun by a heavy snowcover. While the daily
productivity of high mountain plants during summer is fully equivalent to most lowland
environments (Bliss 1962; Webber 1974), annual productivity is quite low because of the