Most of us think about what goes in the mouth of a bear and not what comes out of the back end. In this case, this black bear is consuming buffaloberries and other berries that can be found at the bottom of the valley. And as the summer continues, more options will be available at higher elevations. But just as important is what comes out of the back end of the bear. Any ecosystem that has bears, they are the chief dispersers of seeds in berries in the area. Let’s take buffaloberries as an example. If an adult bear can consume more than 200, 000 berries per day. Then close to the same number of seeds will get dispersed out on the landscape. And that’s just one species of berry. Anything fruits they eat with seeds in it, the bears end up helping the plant the fruit came from spread on the landscape.
