Montana Mammals
Known to scientists as Lynx rufus, this felid is very familiar to Montana State students.
What is the bobcat?
Most of the Earth's animal biomass consists of these species.
What are insects (or invertebrates)?
This word is used to describe the breakup of habitat due to human development and activity.
What is fragmentation?
This effective and indiscriminate method of hunting bushmeat through placement of nearly inconspicuous wires is a grave threat to both large African carnivores and their prey.
What is snaring?
446 species of these flying vertebrates have been observed in Montana.
What are birds?
This species, the largest rodent in Montana, is a crucial ecosystem engineer through its building of dams in wetland areas.
What is the beaver?
These night-flying lepidopterans are a crucial food source for many bat species.
What are moths?
This term describes the ability of humans and wildlife to share the same environment, balancing the needs of both to reduce conflict.
What is coexistence?
This modern method of surveying and capturing images of wildlife has proven particularly effective for studying carnivorous mammals.
What is camera trapping?
These reptiles, one species of which occurs in Montana, can produce a distinctive noise through rapidly shaking their tails.
What are rattlesnakes?
The scientific name of the largest land mammal in North America is easy to remember, as it is the species' common name repeated twice.
What is the bison?
These web-spinning arachnids are very important in managing insect populations.
What are spiders?
This term describes the process of influencing interactions among wildlife, their habitats, and people to achieve specific goals, and is a major focus of ecology curricula at MSU.
What is wildlife management?
In Yellowstone National Park, bear attacks have never occurred on groups with this many or more people. (Looking for a number)
What is five (people)?
This form of water contamination, caused by excessive levels of nitrogen and phosphorus from manure or synthetic fertilizers, frequently results in anoxic conditions and aquatic life die-offs.
What is nutrient pollution?
This mustelid species has been coveted throughout history for its striking white winter coat, which has been used for the clothing of European aristocracy and Native American regalia.
What is the short-tailed weasel (or ermine)?
These many-legged arthropods of the order Diplopoda include some of the largest extinct land invertebrates.
What are millipedes?
This biologically destructive process, involving the removal of trees and conversion of land to non-forest use, degrades an area about the size of the nation of Bangladesh every year.
What is deforestation?
This seafaring anatid winters along the coast but returns to whitewater streams in Montana and Idaho to breed.
What is the Harlequin Duck?
The rate of growth of a population over time is represented by this Greek letter.
What is lambda (λ)?
The depth of the lacrimal fossae, indentations in the skull below the eyes, helps distinguish these two Montana ungulates.
What are white-tailed deer and mule deer?
These common dipterans serve as mechanical vectors to over 100 pathogens, such as those causing typhoid, cholera, salmonellosis, bacillary dysentery, tuberculosis, anthrax, ophthalmia, and pyogenic cocci.
What are houseflies?
This conservation method, applied to species like wolves in Yellowstone and pine martens in the Little Belts, involves returning animals to areas where they once occurred.
What is reintroduction?
Many areas in Region 3 have now seen cases of this prion disease that almost exclusively affects ungulates, especially members of the family Cervidae.
What is Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)?
This three-word term describes the continuous adaptation between competing species where each side evolves new strategies to gain an advantage over the other.
What is an evolutionary arms race?