Native bees and large ungulates such as deer, elk and cattle have a lot in common when it comes to flowering plants.

Although efforts to increase the number of native pollinators have intensified, managing landscapes for pollinators must be balanced with timber production, livestock grazing and other activities. At the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in eastern Oregon, research wildlife biologist Mary Rowland and colleagues from Oregon State University found high potential overlap between flowers visited by native bees and plants eaten by large mammals. These results can assist land managers in places where ungulates and native bees co-occur, especially in relation to seasonal habitat use and dietary preferences of both bees and ungulates.