{"id":42132,"date":"2024-09-27T09:17:57","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T07:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/6eb7f112-adc7-4b0d-95a6-2b673ae5d503"},"modified":"2024-09-27T09:27:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T07:27:30","slug":"bison-snot-holds-the-american-prairie-together-heres-how-according-to-an-ecosystem-expert","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/bison-snot-holds-the-american-prairie-together-heres-how-according-to-an-ecosystem-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Bison snot holds the American prairie together. Here’s how, according to an ecosystem expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join us on an extraordinary journey through the gut of America’s largest land animal… <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Friday, 27 September 2024 at 07:17 AM<\/p>

\n\n

The American prairie once had three things in abundance: bison, tallgrass, and microbes. <\/strong><\/p>

According to ecosystem expert Wes Olson, these three entities \u2013 from completely different kingdoms, living on seemingly incompatible scales \u2013 formed an unlikely alliance that holds the whole place together. It\u2019s glued by an equally esoteric material: bison snot.<\/p>

Bison snot is far more important than you might think…\/Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>
It works like this: Like most places on Earth, the American prairie is absolutely suffused with micro- organisms. These bacteria, protozoa, and fungi cling to plants, hang suspended in drops of water, and float in the air. <\/p>
As a bison sniffs and chews, some of these end up in her mouth, and others inside her elegant, comma-shaped nostrils, where they become trapped in snot. Every few bites, the bison digs her tongue in there to clear things out, swallowing more microscopic critters in the process.<\/p>
Chewed grass, snot and microbes are then swept down into the rumen<\/a>, the first of the bison\u2019s four stomachs, where the microbes get to work breaking down the tough plant cellulose into nutrients the animal can use. <\/p>
The exact microbe makeup varies depending on the season and the type of grass; the prairie\u2019s microbial succession pattern allows the bison to move between foraging grounds without losing the ability to digest.<\/p>
Bison once roamed across North America. Indigenous-led restoration efforts are gradually bringing back small herds, especially on tribal lands in Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana\/Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>
When a mouthful of grass has finished its journey through a bison, it emerges in another familiar form. A bison poops enough every day to fill a 3-gallon (11 L) bucket. This poop is generally known as dung, chips, or patties \u2013 no one seems to call it waste, maybe because it\u2019s anything but.<\/p>
Insects move into the bison chips to eat the microbes still hanging out there; then bats, birds and box turtles come to eat those bugs. People burn dried chips as fuel for warmth and cooking. And dung beetles<\/a> chop some up and bury them, making them available to soil microbes, which transform the nutrients within into a form that can be used by plants. In this way, the prairie grass, after a few microbe-smoothed stops inside a ruminant, becomes itself again.<\/p>
How to see bison<\/h3>
Best not to get snot-spottingly close to a bison \u2013 but with binoculars, you can watch them get their tongues way up in there.<\/p>
This article is excerpted from\u00a0Atlas Obscura: Wild Life:\u00a0An Explorer\u2019s Guide to the World\u2019s Living Wonders<\/em>\u00a0by Joshua Foer & Cara Giaimo. Workman Publishing, 2024.<\/p>
$\"Atlas$ <\/figure>
*Main image: Bison on the prairie below the Grand Teton Range\/Getty<\/em><\/p>*
**More fascinating stories from the world of wildlife<\/strong><\/p>**
**Chernobyl\u00a0Exclusion\u00a0Zone: meet the animals within<\/a><\/li>**
**Drone films extraordinary ‘headstanding’ whales in Oregon<\/a><\/li>**
There’s a terrifying island off Brazil that only scientists and soldiers can visit<\/a><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n
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