"A FOREST FULL" Dry lodgepole pine forests give way to cool subalpine forests of spruce and fire on the slopes above Kenosha Pass. Aspen add their color to coplete the mix, and wildlife thrives in this forested mosaic. Elk (Wapiti) In the early 1900's there were less than 1000 elk in Colorado. Today's elk population has grown to over 200,000 due in part to transplanted anmals from Wyoming. Pine Squirrel (Chicharee) The chattering chickaree in its rusty brown coat comments on all forest activity. Its excited whistles, shrieks and tall twitching, have earned it the Indian name “tail-in the air”. Birds in the Pines The songs of pine siskins, ruby-crowned kinglets, and hermit thrushes sound throughout the subalpine forest. A few raptors, such as red-tailed hawks may be spotted as they soar over open meadows searching for prey. Black Bear This bear’s diet is comprised of fresh meat, carrion, inserts, grasses, fruits, nuts and berries. It can consume 20,000 calories a day to produce the fat it needs to sleep the winter away. Mule Deer Catch a glimpse of a mule deer browsing at dusk. Its large ears – the size of a mule’s – flicker independently to hear far-away sounds. Bison Buffalo once roamed Colorado’s plains, mountains and meadows in large numbers, but were ultimately hunted out by early settlers. The last wild bison in Colorado was killed in South Park in 1897. Aspen Antics Did you know that aspens can reproduce by pollination or clones? These fast growing trees reproduce by sending out rhizomes, or roots genetically alike. When pollination occurs, the trees will be genetically different. As chlorophyll production slows in autumn, stands of clone trees explore in fiery golden hues.