Bears are the chief seed dispersers in Alaska

Full Story here: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/release/2018/01/great-scat-bears-… New OSU research shows brown and black bears are the primary seed dispersers in southeastern Alaska. While foraging, bears disperse hundreds of thousands of devil’s club seeds through their scat. OSU researchers swabbed berry stalks to retrieve DNA from saliva left by animals and birds that ate the berries. This is the first instance of a temperate plant being mainly dispersed by mammals through their gut. The finding has implications for the Pacific Northwest plant community.

OSU researcher in eastern oregon landscape

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