American Patriot - Bundys; Restore Late Pleistocene Function - Reading

Who are the Bundys?

an LSD family that grazed cattle on federal lands by permit in the Gold Butte area for generations

In 1989 USFWS Emergency listed the Mojave population of the desert tortoise as?

endangered under the ESA

In 1990, USFWS converted desert tortoise to?

threatened

What USFWS decision did they issue?

required BLM to reduce or revoke ranchers' grazing rights on public lands in desert tortoise habitat

When were ephemeral grazing permits were allowed?

only in years with above average rainfall and thus, annual plant growth

In 1993, what did BLM do?

lowered the number of cattle that Bundy was allowed to graze and limited when and how grazing could occur

In protest, what did Bundy do in response to BLM lowering the number of cattle allowed to graze, and how much could it occur?

stops paying grazing fees, but continued grazing

What were some fermentation traits?

Large-bodied hindgut grazers

Large- bodied ruminants

Large-bodied hindgut grazers:

Fermentation in the large intestine

Large- bodied ruminants:

Fermentation in the rumen (foregut)

What were some advantages of hindgut fermentation?

• Fast passage of food, able to eat large amounts of food quickly

• Better at handling diets that vary widely in quality

  • Better suited to environments where forage is abundant, and intake rate is more important than extracting every possible nutrientWhat

What were some advantages of ruminants?

• More efficient digestion of low-quality fibrous plants

• Recover most microbial protein, providing a lot of amino acids

• Can survive on poor quality forage

What did figure 1C describe?

More functional groups/ecosystem function in the Late Pleistocene than today

• Implies loss of ecosystem functionality between LP and now

• Not just loss in species richness

What did figure 2A describe?

All depict a loss, looking at just the native species

• Trait space is a metric of functional diversity (= functional richness)

• Turnover = unique space trait

What did figure 2/B describe?

How dissimilar patterns are from the late Pleistocene

• New species = new function?

What did figure 3 describe?

Select introduced herbivores and their extinct nearest neighbors in those continents most impacted by extinctions and introductions

• By body mass and dietary guild

• Restricted by climate zone and continent

• Functions interchangeable