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strong, and other factors, such as insolation and timing and duration of precipitation events, 

 must also play a role. 



Evidence from the frequency of scats indicates that large vertebrate grazers, including 

 livestock, are not overly common at the Sheep Corral Gulch site compared to sites in Idaho 

 (Table 4, Lesica and Elliott 1989). Most inflorescence predation was probably due to insects 

 such as ants, tent caterpillars and cutworms (Lesica, pers. obs.) rather than vertebrate 

 grazers. 



Conclusions 



In the Sheep Corral Gulch population of Astragalus scaphoides . appreciable 

 flowering and fruit-set occurs only every other year on average. Furthermore, predation of 

 inflorescences may reduce fruit-set by 20-30%, and seed predators often reduce fecundity by 

 an additional 24-33%. Nonetheless, the results of this study suggest that the A^ scaphoides 

 population is viable and increasing in size. 



