ABSTRACT
They were not aware of it, but their actions were the same as those of fish in schools and birds in flocks. Gatherings reduce the chances of individuals being singled out for predation.
Many of the large trees the Europeans found in the New World were in genera they knew, such as Abies (firs), Acer (maples), Betula (birches), Castanea (chestnuts), Fagus (beech), Fraxinus (ash), Juglans (walnuts), Picea (spruces), Pinus (pines), Populus (poplars), Quercus (oaks), and Ulmus (elms). The newcomers to the New World were so greedy for the wood from these trees that large specimens like those they first encountered are today difficult to imagine, much less find. A visit to the Joyce Kilmer segment of the Nantahala National Forest in western North Carolina will give an idea of the size of those old originals. Some of the remaining tulip trees (Liriodendron tuplipifera) there are so large that it takes three or more people linking hands to reach around their bases.
