title: Hamburger content: may be ordered "rare", but normally are served medium-well or well-done for food safety reasons. Fast food restaurants do not usually offer this option. The McDonald's fast-food chain sells the Big Mac, one of the world's top selling hamburgers, with an estimated 550 million sold annually in the United States. Other major fast-food chains, including Burger King (also known as Hungry Jack's in Australia), A&W, Culver's, Whataburger, Carl's Jr./Hardee's chain, Wendy's (known for their square patties), Jack in the Box, Cook Out, Harvey's, Shake Shack, In-N-Out Burger, Five Guys, Fatburger, Vera's, Burgerville, Back Yard Burgers, Lick's Homeburger, Roy Rogers, Smashburger,


title: Hamburger content: and Sonic also rely heavily on hamburger sales. Fuddruckers and Red Robin are hamburger chains that specialize in the mid-tier "restaurant-style" variety of hamburgers. Some restaurants offer elaborate hamburgers using expensive cuts of meat and various cheeses, toppings, and sauces. One example is the Bobby's Burger Palace chain founded by well-known chef and Food Network star Bobby Flay. Hamburgers are often served as a fast dinner, picnic or party food and are often cooked outdoors on barbecue grills. A high-quality hamburger patty is made entirely of ground (minced) beef and seasonings; these may be described as "all-beef hamburger" or "all-beef


title: Hamburger content: patties" to distinguish them from inexpensive hamburgers made with cost-savers like added flour, textured vegetable protein, ammonia treated defatted beef trimmings (which the company Beef Products Inc, calls "lean finely textured beef"), advanced meat recovery, or other fillers. In the 1930s ground liver was sometimes added. Some cooks prepare their patties with binders like eggs or breadcrumbs. Seasonings may include salt and pepper and others like as parsley, onions, soy sauce, Thousand Island dressing, onion soup mix, or Worcestershire sauce. Many name brand seasoned salt products are also used. Raw hamburger may contain harmful bacteria that can produce food-borne illness


title: Hamburger content: such as , due to the occasional initial improper preparation of the meat, so caution is needed during handling and cooking. Because of the potential for food-borne illness, the USDA recommends hamburgers be cooked to an internal temperature of . If cooked to this temperature, they are considered well-done. Burgers can also be made with patties made from ingredients other than beef. For example, a "turkey burger" uses ground turkey meat, a "chicken burger" uses ground chicken meat. A "buffalo burger" uses ground meat from a bison, and an "ostrich burger" is made from ground seasoned ostrich meat. A deer


title: Hamburger content: burger uses ground venison from deer. A "veggie burger", "black bean burger", "garden burger", or "tofu burger" uses a meat analogue, a meat substitute such as tofu, TVP, seitan (wheat gluten), quorn, beans, grains or an assortment of vegetables, ground up and mashed into patties. A steak burger is marketing term for a hamburger claimed to be of superior quality. or, in Australia, a sandwich containing a steak. Steak burgers are first mentioned in the 1920s. Like other hamburgers, they may be prepared with various accompaniments and toppings. Use of the term "steakburger" dates to the 1920s in the United


title: Hamburger content: States. In the U.S. in 1934, A.H. "Gus" Belt, the founder of Steak 'n Shake, devised a higher-quality hamburger and offered it as a "steakburger" to customers at the company's first location in Normal, Illinois. This burger used a combination of ground meat from the strip portion of T-bone steak and sirloin steak in its preparation. Steak burgers are a primary menu item at Steak 'n Shake restaurants, and the company's registered trademarks included "original steakburger" and "famous for steakburgers". Steak 'n Shake's "Prime Steakburgers" are now made of choice grade brisket and chuck. Beef is typical, although other meats


title: Hamburger content: such as lamb and pork may also be used. The meat is ground or chopped. In Australia, a steak burger is a steak sandwich which contains a whole steak, not ground meat. Steak burgers may be cooked to various degrees of doneness. Steak burgers may be served with standard hamburger toppings such as lettuce, onion, and tomato. Some may have additional various toppings such as cheese, bacon, fried egg, mushrooms, additional meats, and others. Various fast food outlets and restaurants such as Burger King, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, IHOP, Steak 'n Shake, Mr. Steak, and Freddy's market steak burgers. Some restaurants


title: Hamburger content: offer high-end burgers prepared from aged beef. Additionally, many restaurants have used the term "steak burger" at various times. Some baseball parks concessions in the United States call their hamburgers steak burgers, such as Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska. Burger King introduced the Sirloin Steak sandwich in 1979 as part of a menu expansion that in turn was part of a corporate restructuring effort for the company. It was a single oblong patty made of chopped steak served on a sub-style, sesame seed roll. Additional steak burgers that Burger King has offered are the Angus Bacon Cheddar Ranch Steak


title: Hamburger content: Burger, the Angus Bacon & Cheese Steak Burger, and a limited edition Stuffed Steakhouse Burger. In 2004 Steak 'n Shake sued Burger King over the latter's use of term "Steak Burger" in conjunction with one of its menu items, claiming that such use infringed on trademark rights. In the United States and Canada, burgers may be classified as two main types: fast food hamburgers and individually prepared burgers made in homes and restaurants. The latter are often prepared with a variety of toppings, including lettuce, tomato, onion, and often sliced pickles (or pickle relish). French fries often accompany the burger.


title: Hamburger content: Cheese (usually processed cheese slices but often Cheddar, Swiss, pepper jack, or blue), either melted directly on the meat patty or crumbled on top, is generally an option. Condiments might be added to a hamburger or may be offered separately on the side including mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, salad dressings and barbecue sauce. Other toppings can include bacon, avocado or guacamole, sliced sautéed mushrooms, cheese sauce, chili (usually without beans), fried egg, scrambled egg, feta cheese, blue cheese, salsa, pineapple, jalapeños and other kinds of chili peppers, anchovies, slices of ham or bologna, pastrami or teriyaki-seasoned beef, tartar sauce, french fries,


title: Hamburger content: onion rings or potato chips. In Mexico, burgers (called "hamburguesas") are served with ham and slices of American cheese fried on top of the meat patty. The toppings include avocado, jalapeño slices, shredded lettuce, onion and tomato. The bun has mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard. In certain parts are served with bacon, which can be fried or grilled along with the meat patty. A slice of pineapple is also a usual option, and the variation is known as a "Hawaiian hamburger". Some restaurants' burgers also have barbecue sauce, and others also replace the ground patty with sirloin, Al pastor meat, barbacoa


title: Hamburger content: or a fried chicken breast. Many burger chains from the United States can be found all over Mexico, including Carl's Jr., Sonic, as well as global chains such as McDonald's and Burger King. Hamburgers in the UK and Ireland are very similar to those in the US, and the High Street is dominated by the same big two chains as in the U.S. — McDonald's and Burger King. The menus offered to both countries are virtually identical, although portion sizes tend to be smaller in the UK. In Ireland the food outlet Supermacs is widespread throughout the country serving burgers


title: Hamburger content: as part of its menu. In Ireland, Abrakebabra (started out selling kebabs) and Eddie Rocket's are also major chains. An original and indigenous rival to the big two U.S. giants was the quintessentially British fast-food chain Wimpy, originally known as Wimpy Bar (opened 1954 at the Lyon's Corner House in Coventry Street London), which served its hamburgers on a plate with British-style chips, accompanied by cutlery and delivered to the customer's table. In the late 1970s, to compete with McDonald's, Wimpy began to open American-style counter-service restaurants and the brand disappeared from many UK high streets when those restaurants were


title: Hamburger content: re-branded as Burger Kings between 1989 and 1990 by the then-owner of both brands, Grand Metropolitan. A management buyout in 1990 split the brands again and now Wimpy table-service restaurants can still be found in many town centres whilst new counter-service Wimpys are now often found at motorway service stations. Hamburgers are also available from mobile kiosks, commonly known as “burger vans", particularly at outdoor events such as football matches. Burgers from this type of outlet are usually served without any form of salad — only fried onions and a choice of tomato ketchup, mustard or brown sauce. Chip shops,


title: Hamburger content: particularly in the West Midlands and North-East of England, Scotland and Ireland, serve battered hamburgers called batter burgers. This is where the burger patty, by itself, is deep-fat-fried in batter and is usually served with chips. Hamburgers and veggie burgers served with chips and salad, are standard pub grub menu items. Many pubs specialize in "gourmet" burgers. These are usually high quality minced steak patties, topped with items such as blue cheese, brie, avocado et cetera. Some British pubs serve burger patties made from more exotic meats including venison burgers (sometimes nicknamed Bambi Burgers), bison burgers, ostrich burgers and in


title: Hamburger content: some Australian themed pubs even kangaroo burgers can be purchased. These burgers are served in a similar way to the traditional hamburger but are sometimes served with a different sauce including redcurrant sauce, mint sauce and plum sauce. In the early 21st century "premium" hamburger chain and independent restaurants have arisen, selling burgers produced from meat stated to be of high quality and often organic, usually served to eat on the premises rather than to take away. Chains include Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Ultimate Burger, Hamburger Union and Byron Hamburgers in London. Independent restaurants such as Meatmarket and Dirty Burger developed


title: Hamburger content: a style of rich, juicy burger in 2012 which is known as a "dirty burger" or "third-wave burger". In recent years Rustlers has sold pre-cooked hamburgers reheatable in a microwave oven in the United Kingdom. In the UK, as in North America and Japan, the term "burger" can refer simply to the patty, be it beef, some other kind of meat, or vegetarian. Fast food franchises sell American style fast food hamburgers in Australia and New Zealand. The traditional Australasian hamburgers are usually bought from fish and chip shops or milk bars. The hamburger meat is almost always ground beef,


title: Hamburger content: or "mince" as it is more commonly referred to in Australia and New Zealand. They commonly include tomato, lettuce, grilled onion and meat as minimum, and can optionally include cheese, beetroot, pineapple, a fried egg and bacon. If all these optional ingredients are included it is known in Australia as "burger with the lot". The term 'burger' is also applied to any hot sandwich using a bun for the bread, even when the filling does not contain beef, such as a chicken burger (generally with chicken breast rather than chicken mince), salmon burger, pulled pork burger, veggie burger, etc. The


title: Hamburger content: term 'sandwich' is usually only applied when the bread used is sliced bread. The only variance between the two countries' hamburgers is that New Zealand's equivalent to "The Lot" often contains a steak (beef) as well. The condiments regularly used are barbecue sauce and tomato sauce. The McDonald's "McOz" Burger is partway between American and Australian style burgers, having beetroot and tomato in an otherwise typical American burger; however, it is no longer a part of the menu. Likewise, McDonald's in New Zealand created a Kiwiburger, similar to a Quarter Pounder, but features salad, beetroot and a fried egg. The


title: Hamburger content: Hungry Jack's (Burger King) "Aussie Burger" has tomato, lettuce, onion, cheese, bacon, beetroot, egg, ketchup and a meat patty. In China, restaurants such as McDonald's and KFC exist, which sell hamburgers. In Japan, hamburgers can be served in a bun, called "hanbāgā" (ハンバーガー), or just the patties served without a bun, known as "hanbāgu" (ハンバーグ) or "hamburg", short for "hamburg steak". "Hamburg steaks" (served without buns) are similar to what are known as Salisbury steaks in the U.S. They are made from minced beef, pork or a blend of the two mixed with minced onions, egg, breadcrumbs and spices. They


title: Hamburger content: are served with brown sauce (or demi-glace in restaurants) with vegetable or salad sides, or occasionally in Japanese curries. Hamburgers may be served in casual, western style suburban restaurant chains known in Japan as "family restaurants". Hamburgers in buns, on the other hand, are predominantly the domain of fast food chains such as American chains known as McDonald's and Wendy's. Japan has home grown hamburger chain restaurants such as MOS Burger, First Kitchen and Freshness Burger. Local varieties of burgers served in Japan include teriyaki burgers, "katsu" burgers (containing tonkatsu) and burgers containing shrimp korokke. Some of the more unusual


title: Hamburger content: examples include the rice burger, where the bun is made of rice, and the luxury 1000-yen (US$10) "Takumi Burger" (meaning "artisan taste"), featuring avocados, freshly grated wasabi, and other rare seasonal ingredients. In terms of the actual patty, there are burgers made with Kobe beef, butchered from cows that are fed with beer and massaged daily. McDonald's Japan also recently launched a McPork burger, made with U.S. pork. McDonald's has been gradually losing market share in Japan to these local hamburger chains, due in part to the preference of Japanese diners for fresh ingredients and more refined, "upscale" hamburger offerings.


title: Hamburger content: Burger King once retreated from Japan, but re-entered the market in Summer 2007 in cooperation with the Korean owned Japanese fast-food chain Lotteria. According to the Guinness World Records, a Japanese man, Takeru Kobayashi ate the most amount of hamburgers in three minutes on July 11, 2014. Rice burgers, mentioned above, are also available in several East Asian countries such as Taiwan and South Korea. Lotteria is a big hamburger franchise in Japan owned by the South Korean Lotte group, with outlets also in China, South Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan. In addition to selling beef hamburgers, they also have hamburgers


title: Hamburger content: made from squid, pork, tofu, and shrimp. Variations available in South Korea include Bulgogi burgers and Kimchi burgers. In the Philippines, a wide range of major U.S. fast-food franchises are well represented, together with local imitators, often amended to the local palate. The chain McDonald's (locally nicknamed "McDo") have a range of burger and chicken dishes often accompanied by plain steamed rice or French fries. The Philippines boasts its own burger-chain called Jollibee, which offers burger meals and chicken, including a signature burger called "Champ". Jollibee now has a number of outlets in the United States, the Middle East and


title: Hamburger content: East Asia. In India, burgers are usually made from chicken or vegetable patties due to cultural beliefs against eating beef (which stem from Hindu religious practice) and pork (which stems from Islamic religious practice). Because of this, the majority of fast food chains and restaurants in India do not serve beef. McDonald's in India, for instance, does not serve beef, offering the "Maharaja Mac" instead of the Big Mac, substituting the beef patties with chicken. Another version of the Indian vegetarian burger is the Wada Pav consisting deep-fried potato patty dipped in gramflour batter. It is usually served with mint


title: Hamburger content: chutney and fried green chili. In Pakistan, apart from American fast food chains, burgers can be found in stalls near shopping areas, the best known being the "shami burger". This is made from "shami kebab", made by mixing lentil and minced lamb. Onions, scrambled egg and ketchup are the most may be toppings. In Malaysia there are 300 McDonald's restaurants. The menu in Malaysia also includes eggs and fried chicken on top of the regular burgers. Burgers are also easily found at nearby mobile kiosks, especially Ramly Burger. In Mongolia, a recent fast food craze due to the sudden influx


title: Hamburger content: of foreign influence has led to the prominence of the hamburger. Specialized fast food restaurants serving to Mongolian tastes have sprung up and seen great success. In Turkey, in addition to the internationally familiar offerings, numerous localized variants of the hamburger may be found, such as the Islak Burger (lit. "Wet-Burger"), which a beef slider doused in seasoned tomato sauce and steamed inside a special glass chamber, and has its origins in the Turkish fast food retailer Kizilkayalar. Other variations include lamb-burgers and offal-burgers, which are offered by local fast food businesses and global chains alike, such as McDonald's and


title: Hamburger content: Burger King. Most burger shops have also adopted a pizzeria-like approach when it comes to home delivery, and almost all major fast food chains deliver. In the former Yugoslavia, and originally in Serbia, there is a local version of the hamburger known as the "pljeskavica". It is often served as a patty, but may have a bun as well. Throughout Belgium and in some eateries in the Netherlands, a Bicky Burger is sold that combines pork, chicken, and horse meat. The hamburger, usually fried, is served between a bun, sprinkled with sesame seeds. It often comes with a specific "Bickysaus"


title: Hamburger content: (Bicky dressing) made with mayonnaise, mustard, cabbage, and onion. Hamburger A hamburger, beefburger or burger is a sandwich consisting of one or more cooked patties of ground meat, usually beef, placed inside a sliced bread roll or bun. The patty may be pan fried, grilled, or flame broiled. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, bacon, onion, pickles, or chiles; condiments such as mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, or "special sauce"; and are frequently placed on sesame seed buns. A hamburger topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger. The term "burger" can also be applied to the meat patty on


title: Dacia content: the ancient Kingdom of Dacia, a large remainder of the land remained outside of Roman Imperial authority. Additionally, the conquest changed the balance of power in the region and was the catalyst for a renewed alliance of Germanic and Celtic tribes and kingdoms against the Roman Empire. However, the material advantages of the Roman Imperial system was attractive to the surviving aristocracy. Afterwards, many of the Dacians became Romanised (see also Origin of Romanians). In AD 183, war broke out in Dacia: few details are available, but it appears two future contenders for the throne of emperor Commodus, Clodius Albinus


title: "Weapons in Star Trek" content: cannons fired a plasma discharge in the form of a beam or a burst similar to the plasma bullets fired by hand-held plasma weapons, but much bigger in size. The NX-class was initially armed with plasma cannons. Phase cannons are 22nd century weapons, several of which first appear mounted to the "Enterprise" in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "". Phase cannons have a variable yield, with the cannons on the "Enterprise" being rated for a maximum output of 500 gigajoules, about 120 tons TNT equivalent. Phase cannons are generally more powerful than spatial torpedoes. They are the 22nd century precursor


title: "Spencer Tracy" content: events of the year. Tracy played a Portuguese fisherman in the adventure movie, based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling. He was uncomfortable feigning a foreign accent, and resented having his hair curled, but the role was a hit with audiences and Tracy won the Academy Award for Best Actor. "Captains Courageous" was followed by "Big City" with Luise Rainer and "Mannequin" with Joan Crawford, the latter of which took good billings at the box office. With two years of hit movies and industry recognition, Tracy became a star in the United States. A 1937 poll of 20 million people


title: Subwoofer content: the seat. The advantage of tactile transducers used for low frequencies is that they allow a listening environment that is not filled with loud low frequency waves. This helps the drummer in a rock music band to monitor his or her kick drum performance without filling the stage with powerful, loud low frequency sound from a 15" (40 cm) subwoofer monitor and an amplifier, which can "leak" into other drum mics and lower the quality of the sound mix. By not having a large, powerful subwoofer monitor, a bass shaker also enables a drummer to lower the sound pressure levels


title: "Drum machine" content: described it as an "automatic rhythm player which is simple but capable of electronically producing various rhythms in the characteristic tones of a drum, a piccolo and so on." It has some similarities to Seeburg's slightly earlier 1964 patent. In 1967, Ace Tone founder Ikutaro Kakehashi (later founder of Roland Corporation) developed the preset rhythm-pattern generator using "diode matrix" circuit, which has some similarities to the earlier Seeburg and Nippon Columbia patents. Kakehashi's patent describes his device as a "plurality of inverting circuits and/or clipper circuits" which "are connected to a counting circuit to synthesize the output signal of the


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Grand Teton National Park Grand Teton National Park is an American national park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately , the park includes the major peaks of the Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Grand Teton National Park is only south of Yellowstone National Park, to which it is connected by the National Park Service-managed John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. Along with surrounding national forests, these three protected areas constitute the almost Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the world's largest intact mid-latitude temperate ecosystems. Human history of the Grand


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Teton region dates back at least 11,000 years, when the first nomadic hunter-gatherer Paleo-Indians began migrating into the region during warmer months pursuing food and supplies. In the early 19th century, the first white explorers encountered the eastern Shoshone natives. Between 1810 and 1840, the region attracted fur trading companies that vied for control of the lucrative beaver pelt trade. U.S. Government expeditions to the region commenced in the mid-19th century as an offshoot of exploration in Yellowstone, with the first permanent white settlers in Jackson Hole arriving in the 1880s. Efforts to preserve the region as a national park


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: began in the late 19th century, and in 1929 Grand Teton National Park was established, protecting the Teton Range's major peaks. The valley of Jackson Hole remained in private ownership until the 1930s, when conservationists led by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. began purchasing land in Jackson Hole to be added to the existing national park. Against public opinion and with repeated Congressional efforts to repeal the measures, much of Jackson Hole was set aside for protection as Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943. The monument was abolished in 1950 and most of the monument land was added to Grand Teton


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: National Park. Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the Teton Range. The naming of the mountains is attributed to early 19th-century French-speaking trappers—"les trois tétons" (the three teats) was later anglicized and shortened to "Tetons". At , Grand Teton abruptly rises more than above Jackson Hole, almost higher than Mount Owen, the second-highest summit in the range. The park has numerous lakes, including Jackson Lake as well as streams of varying length and the upper main stem of the Snake River. Though in a state of recession, a dozen small glaciers persist at


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: the higher elevations near the highest peaks in the range. Some of the rocks in the park are the oldest found in any American national park and have been dated at nearly 2.7 billion years. Grand Teton National Park is an almost pristine ecosystem and the same species of flora and fauna that have existed since prehistoric times can still be found there. More than 1,000 species of vascular plants, dozens of species of mammals, 300 species of birds, more than a dozen fish species and a few species of reptiles and amphibians inhabit the park. Due to various changes


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: in the ecosystem, some of them human-induced, efforts have been made to provide enhanced protection to some species of native fish and the increasingly threatened whitebark pine. Grand Teton National Park is a popular destination for mountaineering, hiking, fishing and other forms of recreation. There are more than 1,000 drive-in campsites and over of hiking trails that provide access to backcountry camping areas. Noted for world-renowned trout fishing, the park is one of the few places to catch Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout. Grand Teton has several National Park Service-run visitor centers, and privately operated concessions for motels, lodges, gas


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: stations and marinas. Paleo-Indian presence in what is now Grand Teton National Park dates back more than 11,000 years. Jackson Hole valley climate at that time was colder and more alpine than the semi-arid climate found today, and the first humans were migratory hunter-gatherers spending summer months in Jackson Hole and wintering in the valleys west of the Teton Range. Along the shores of Jackson Lake, fire pits, tools and what are thought to have been fishing weights have been discovered. One of the tools found is of a type associated with the Clovis culture, and tools from this cultural


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: period date back at least 11,500 years. Some of the tools are made of obsidian which chemical analysis indicates came from sources near present-day Teton Pass, south of Grand Teton National Park. Though obsidian was also available north of Jackson Hole, virtually all the obsidian spear points found are from a source to the south, indicating that the main seasonal migratory route for the Paleo-Indian was from this direction. Elk, which winter on the National Elk Refuge at the southern end of Jackson Hole and northwest into higher altitudes during spring and summer, follow a similar migratory pattern to this


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: day. From 11,000 to about 500 years ago, there is little evidence of change in the migratory patterns amongst the Native American groups in the region and no evidence that indicates any permanent human settlement. When white American explorers first entered the region in the first decade of the 19th century, they encountered the eastern tribes of the Shoshone people. Most of the Shoshone that lived in the mountain vastness of the greater Yellowstone region continued to be pedestrian while other groups of Shoshone that resided in lower elevations had limited use of horses. The mountain-dwelling Shoshone were known as


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: "Sheep-eaters" or ""Tukudika"" as they referred to themselves, since a staple of their diet was the Bighorn Sheep. The Shoshones continued to follow the same migratory pattern as their predecessors and have been documented as having a close spiritual relationship with the Teton Range. A number of stone enclosures on some of the peaks, including on the upper slopes of Grand Teton (known simply as "The Enclosure") are thought to have been used by Shoshone during vision quests. The Teton and Yellowstone region Shoshone relocated to the Wind River Indian Reservation after it was established in 1868. The reservation is


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: situated southeast of Jackson Hole on land that was selected by Chief Washakie. The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) passed well north of the Grand Teton region. During their return trip from the Pacific Ocean, expedition member John Colter was given an early discharge so he could join two fur trappers who were heading west in search of beaver pelts. Colter was later hired by Manuel Lisa to lead fur trappers and to explore the region around the Yellowstone River. During the winter of 1807/08 Colter passed through Jackson Hole and was the first Caucasian to see the Teton Range.


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Lewis and Clark expedition co-leader William Clark produced a map based on the previous expedition and included the explorations of John Colter in 1807, apparently based on discussions between Clark and Colter when the two met in St. Louis, Missouri in 1810. Another map attributed to William Clark indicates John Colter entered Jackson Hole from the northeast, crossing the Continental Divide at either Togwotee Pass or Union Pass and left the region after crossing Teton Pass, following the well established Native American trails. In 1931, the Colter Stone, a rock carved in the shape of a head with the inscription


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: "John Colter" on one side and the year "1808" on the other, was discovered in a field in Tetonia, Idaho, which is west of Teton Pass. The Colter Stone has not been authenticated to have been created by John Colter and may have been the work of later expeditions to the region. John Colter is widely considered the first mountain man and, like those that came to the Jackson Hole region over the next 30 years, he was there primarily for the profitable fur trapping; the region was rich with the highly sought after pelts of beaver and other fur


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: bearing animals. Between 1810 and 1812, the Astorians traveled through Jackson Hole and crossed Teton Pass as they headed east in 1812. After 1810, American and British fur trading companies were in competition for control of the North American fur trade, and American sovereignty over the region was not secured until the signing of the Oregon Treaty in 1846. One party employed by the British North West Company and led by explorer Donald Mackenzie entered Jackson Hole from the west in 1818 or 1819. The Tetons, as well as the valley west of the Teton Range known today as Pierre's


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Hole, may have been named by French speaking Iroquois or French Canadian trappers that were part of Mackenzie's party. Earlier parties had referred to the most prominent peaks of the Teton Range as the Pilot Knobs. The French trappers' "les trois tétons" (the three breasts) was later shortened to the Tetons. Formed in the mid-1820s, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company partnership included Jedediah Smith, William Sublette and David Edward Jackson or "Davey Jackson". Jackson oversaw the trapping operations in the Teton region between 1826 and 1830. Sublette named the valley east of the Teton Range "Jackson's Hole" (later simply Jackson


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Hole) for Davey Jackson. As the demand for beaver fur declined and the various regions of the American West became depleted of beaver due to over trapping, American fur trading companies folded; however, individual mountain men continued to trap beaver in the region until about 1840. From the mid-1840s until 1860, Jackson Hole and the Teton Range were generally devoid of all but the small populations of Native American tribes that had already been there. Most overland human migration routes such as the Oregon and Mormon Trails crossed over South Pass, well to the south of the Teton Range, and


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Caucasian influence in the Teton region was minimal until the U.S. Government commenced organized explorations. The first U.S. Government sponsored expedition to enter Jackson Hole was the 1859–60 Raynolds Expedition. Led by U.S. Army Captain William F. Raynolds and guided by mountain man Jim Bridger, it included naturalist F. V. Hayden, who later led other expeditions to the region. The expedition had been charged with exploring the Yellowstone region, but encountered difficulties crossing mountain passes due to snow. Bridger ended up guiding the expedition south over Union Pass then following the Gros Ventre River drainage to the Snake River and


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: leaving the region over Teton Pass. Organized exploration of the region was halted during the American Civil War but resumed when F. V. Hayden led the well-funded Hayden Geological Survey of 1871. In 1872, Hayden oversaw explorations in Yellowstone, while a branch of his expedition known as the Snake River Division was led by James Stevenson and explored the Teton region. Along with Stevenson was photographer William Henry Jackson who took the first photographs of the Teton Range. The Hayden Geological Survey named many of the mountains and lakes in the region. The explorations by early mountain men and subsequent


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: expeditions failed to identify any sources of economically viable mineral wealth. Nevertheless, small groups of prospectors set up claims and mining operations on several of the creeks and rivers. By 1900 all organized efforts to retrieve minerals had been abandoned. Though the Teton Range was never permanently inhabited, pioneers began settling the Jackson Hole valley to the east of the range in 1884. These earliest homesteaders were mostly single men who endured long winters, short growing seasons and rocky soils that were hard to cultivate. The region was mostly suited for the cultivation of hay and cattle ranching. By 1890,


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Jackson Hole had an estimated permanent population of 60. Menor's Ferry was built in 1892 near present-day Moose, Wyoming to provide access for wagons to the west side of the Snake River. Ranching increased significantly from 1900 to 1920, but a series of agricultural related economic downturns in the early 1920s left many ranchers destitute. Beginning in the 1920s, the automobile provided faster and easier access to areas of natural beauty and old military roads into Jackson Hole over Teton and Togwotee Passes were improved to accommodate the increased vehicle traffic. In response to the increased tourism, dude ranches were


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: established, some new and some from existing cattle ranches, so urbanized travelers could experience the life of a cattleman. To the north of Jackson Hole, Yellowstone National Park had been established in 1872, and by the close of the 19th century, conservationists wanted to expand the boundaries of that park to include at least the Teton Range. By 1907, in an effort to regulate water flow for irrigation purposes, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had constructed a log crib dam at the Snake River outlet of Jackson Lake. This dam failed in 1910 and a new concrete Jackson Lake Dam


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: replaced it by 1911. The dam was further enlarged in 1916, raising lake waters as part of the Minidoka Project, designed to provide irrigation for agriculture in the state of Idaho. Further dam construction plans for other lakes in the Teton Range alarmed Yellowstone National Park superintendent Horace Albright, who sought to block such efforts. Jackson Hole residents were opposed to an expansion of Yellowstone, but were more in favor of the establishment of a separate national park which would include the Teton Range and six lakes at the base of the mountains. After congressional approval, President Calvin Coolidge signed


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: the executive order establishing the Grand Teton National Park on February 26, 1929. The valley of Jackson Hole remained primarily in private ownership when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife visited the region in the late 1920s. Horace Albright and Rockefeller discussed ways to preserve Jackson Hole from commercial exploitation, and in consequence, Rockefeller started buying Jackson Hole properties through the Snake River Land Company for the purpose of later turning them over to the National Park Service. In 1930, this plan was revealed to the residents of the region and was met with strong disapproval. Congressional efforts to


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: prevent the expansion of Grand Teton National Park ended up putting the Snake River Land Company's holdings in limbo. By 1942 Rockefeller had become increasingly impatient that his purchased property might never be added to the park, and wrote to the Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes that he was considering selling the land to another party. Secretary Ickes recommended to President Franklin Roosevelt that the Antiquities Act, which permitted Presidents to set aside land for protection without the approval of Congress, be used to establish a national monument in Jackson Hole. Roosevelt created the Jackson Hole National Monument


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: in 1943, using the land donated from the Snake River Land Company and adding additional property from Teton National Forest. The monument and park were adjacent to each other and both were administered by the National Park Service, but the monument designation ensured no funding allotment, nor provided a level of resource protection equal to the park. Members of Congress repeatedly attempted to have the new national monument abolished. After the end of World War II national public sentiment was in favor of adding the monument to the park, and though there was still much local opposition, the monument and


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: park were combined in 1950. In recognition of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s efforts to establish and then expand Grand Teton National Park, a parcel of land between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks was added to the National Park Service in 1972. This land and the road from the southern boundary of the park to West Thumb in Yellowstone National Park was named the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. The Rockefeller family owned the JY Ranch, which bordered Grand Teton National Park to the southwest. In November 2007, the Rockefeller family transferred ownership of the ranch to the park


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: for the establishment of the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve, which was dedicated on June 21, 2008. During the last 25 years of the 19th century, the mountains of the Teton Range became a focal point for explorers wanting to claim first ascents of the peaks. However, white explorers may not have been the first to climb many of the peaks and the earliest first ascent of even the formidable Grand Teton itself might have been achieved long before written history documented it. Native American relics remain including "The Enclosure", an obviously man-made structure that is located about below the summit


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: of Grand Teton at a point near the Upper Saddle (). Nathaniel P. Langford and James Stevenson, both members of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1872, found The Enclosure during their early attempt to summit Grand Teton. Langford claimed that he and Stevenson climbed Grand Teton, but were vague as to whether they had made it to the summit. Their reported obstacles and sightings were never corroborated by later parties. Langford and Stevenson likely did not get much further than The Enclosure. The first ascent of Grand Teton that is substantiated was made by William O. Owen, Frank Petersen, John


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Shive and Franklin Spencer Spalding on August 11, 1898. Owen had made two previous attempts on the peak and after publishing several accounts of this first ascent, discredited any claim that Langford and Stevenson had ever reached beyond The Enclosure in 1872. The disagreement over which party first reached the top of Grand Teton may be the greatest controversy in the history of American mountaineering. After 1898 no other ascents of Grand Teton were recorded until 1923. By the mid-1930s, more than a dozen different climbing routes had been established on Grand Teton including the northeast ridge in 1931 by


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Glenn Exum. Glenn Exum teamed up with another noted climber named Paul Petzoldt to found the Exum Mountain Guides in 1931. Of the other major peaks on the Teton Range, all were climbed by the late 1930s including Mount Moran in 1922 and Mount Owen in 1930 by Fritiof Fryxell and others after numerous previous attempts had failed. Both Middle and South Teton were first climbed on the same day, August 29, 1923, by a group of climbers led by Albert R. Ellingwood. New routes on the peaks were explored as safety equipment and skills improved and eventually climbs rated


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: at above 5.9 on the Yosemite Decimal System difficulty scale were established on Grand Teton. The classic climb following the route first pioneered by Owen, known as the Owen-Spalding route, is rated at 5.4 due a combination of concerns beyond the gradient alone. Rock climbing and bouldering had become popular in the park by the mid 20th century. In the late 1950s, gymnast John Gill came to the park and started climbing large boulders near Jenny Lake. Gill approached climbing from a gymnastics perspective and while in the Tetons became the first known climber in history to use gymnastic chalk


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: to improve handholds and to keep hands dry while climbing. During the latter decades of the 20th century, extremely difficult cliffs were explored including some in Death Canyon, and by the mid-1990s, 800 different climbing routes had been documented for the various peaks and canyon cliffs. Grand Teton National Park is one of the ten most visited national parks in the U.S., with an annual average of 2.75 million visitors in the period from 2007 to 2016, with 3.27 million visiting in 2016. The National Park Service is a federal agency of the United States Department of the Interior and


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: manages both Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. Grand Teton National Park has an average of 100 permanent and 180 seasonal employees. The park also manages 27 concession contracts that provide services such as lodging, restaurants, mountaineering guides, dude ranching, fishing and a boat shuttle on Jenny Lake. The National Park Service works closely with other federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, and also, in consequence of Jackson Hole Airport's presence in the park, the Federal Aviation Administration. Initial construction of the


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: airstrip north of the town of Jackson was completed in the 1930s. When Jackson Hole National Monument was designated, the airport was inside it. After the monument and park were combined, the Jackson Hole Airport became the only commercial airport within an American national park. Jackson Hole Airport has some of the strictest noise abatement regulations of any airport in the U.S. The airport has night flight curfews and overflight restrictions, with pilots being expected to approach and depart the airport along the east, south or southwest flight corridors. As of 2010, 110 privately owned property inholdings, many belonging to


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: the state of Wyoming, are located within Grand Teton National Park. Efforts to purchase or trade these inholdings for other federal lands are ongoing and through partnerships with other entities, 10 million dollars is hoped to be raised to acquire private inholdings by 2016. Some monies are allocated from congress via the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but Grand Teton National Park may not get all the money needed from the fund as it is divided up between four different federal agencies. Efforts to exchange federal land from other areas for inholdings were still in the negotiation phase in 2012.


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Grand Teton National Park is located in the northwestern region of the U.S. state of Wyoming. To the north the park is bordered by the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, which is administered by Grand Teton National Park. The scenic highway with the same name passes from the southern boundary of Grand Teton National Park to West Thumb in Yellowstone National Park. Grand Teton National Park covers approximately , while the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway includes . Most of the Jackson Hole valley and virtually all the major mountain peaks of the Teton Range are within the


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: park. The Jedediah Smith Wilderness of Caribou-Targhee National Forest lies along the western boundary and includes the western slopes of the Teton Range. To the northeast and east lie the Teton Wilderness and Gros Ventre Wilderness of Bridger-Teton National Forest. The National Elk Refuge is to the southeast, and migrating herds of elk winter there. Privately owned land borders the park to the south and southwest. Grand Teton National Park, along with Yellowstone National Park, surrounding National Forests and related protected areas constitute the () Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem spans across portions of three states and is


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: one of the largest intact mid-latitude ecosystems remaining on Earth. By road, Grand Teton National Park is from Salt Lake City, Utah and from Denver, Colorado. The youngest mountain range in the Rocky Mountains, the Teton Range began forming between 6 and 9 million years ago. It runs roughly north to south and rises from the floor of Jackson Hole without any foothills along a by 7- to 9-mile-wide (11 to 14 km) active fault-block mountain front. The range tilts westward, rising abruptly above Jackson Hole valley which lies to the east but more gradually into Teton Valley to the


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: west. A series of earthquakes along the Teton Fault slowly displaced the western side of the fault upward and the eastern side of the fault downward at an average of of displacement every 300–400 years. Most of the displacement of the fault occurred in the last 2 million years. While the fault has experienced up to 7.5-earthquake magnitude events since it formed, it has been relatively quiescent during historical periods, with only a few 5.0-magnitude or greater earthquakes known to have occurred since 1850. In addition to Grand Teton, another nine peaks are over above sea level. Eight of these


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: peaks between Avalanche and Cascade Canyons make up the often-photographed Cathedral Group. The most prominent peak north of Cascade Canyon is the monolithic Mount Moran () which rises above Jackson Lake. To the north of Mount Moran, the range eventually merges into the high altitude Yellowstone Plateau. South of the central Cathedral Group the Teton Range tapers off near Teton Pass and blends into the Snake River Range. West to east trending canyons provide easier access by foot into the heart of the range as no vehicular roads traverse the range except at Teton Pass, which is south of the


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: park. Carved by a combination of glacier activity as well as by numerous streams, the canyons are at their lowest point along the eastern margin of the range at Jackson Hole. Flowing from higher to lower elevations, the glaciers created more than a dozen U-shaped valleys throughout the range. Cascade Canyon is sandwiched between Mount Owen and Teewinot Mountain to the south and Symmetry Spire to the north and is situated immediately west of Jenny Lake. North to south, Webb, Moran, Paintbrush, Cascade, Death and Granite Canyons slice through Teton Range. Jackson Hole is a long by 6- to 13-mile-wide


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: (10 to 21 km) graben valley with an average elevation of , its lowest point is near the southern park boundary at . The valley sits east of the Teton Range and is vertically displaced downward , making the Teton Fault and its parallel twin on the east side of the valley normal faults with the Jackson Hole block being the hanging wall and the Teton Mountain block being the footwall. Grand Teton National Park contains the major part of both blocks. Erosion of the range provided sediment in the valley so the topographic relief is only . Jackson Hole


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: is comparatively flat, with only a modest increase in altitude south to north; however, a few isolated buttes such as Blacktail Butte and hills including Signal Mountain dot the valley floor. In addition to a few outcroppings, the Snake River has eroded terraces into Jackson Hole. Southeast of Jackson Lake, glacial depressions known as kettles are numerous. The kettles were formed when ice situated under gravel outwash from ice sheets melted as the glaciers retreated. Most of the lakes in the park were formed by glaciers and the largest of these lakes are located at the base of the Teton


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Range. In the northern section of the park lies Jackson Lake, the largest lake in the park at in length, wide and deep. Though Jackson Lake is natural, the Jackson Lake Dam was constructed at its outlet before the creation of the park and the lake level was raised almost consequently. East of the Jackson Lake Lodge lies Emma Matilda and Two Ocean Lakes. South of Jackson Lake, Leigh, Jenny, Bradley, Taggart and Phelps Lakes rest at the outlets of the canyons which lead into the Teton Range. Within the Teton Range, small alpine lakes in cirques are common, and


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: there are more than 100 scattered throughout the high country. Lake Solitude, located at an elevation of , is in a cirque at the head of the North Fork of Cascade Canyon. Other high altitude lakes can be found at over in elevation and a few, such as Icefloe Lake, remain ice clogged for much of the year. The park is not noted for large waterfalls; however, Hidden Falls just west of Jenny Lake is easy to reach after a short hike. From its headwaters on Two Ocean Plateau in Yellowstone National Park, the Snake River flows north to south


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: through the park, entering Jackson Lake near the boundary of Grand Teton National Park and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. The Snake River then flows through the spillways of the Jackson Lake Dam and from there southward through Jackson Hole, exiting the park just west of the Jackson Hole Airport. The largest lakes in the park all drain either directly or by tributary streams into the Snake River. Major tributaries which flow into the Snake River include Pacific Creek and Buffalo Fork near Moran and the Gros Ventre River at the southern border of the park. Through the comparatively


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: level Jackson Hole valley, the Snake River descends an average of , while other streams descending from the mountains to the east and west have higher gradients due to increased slope. The Snake River creates braids and channels in sections where the gradients are lower and in steeper sections, erodes and undercuts the cobblestone terraces once deposited by glaciers. The major peaks of the Teton Range were carved into their current shapes by long vanished glaciers. Commencing 250,000–150,000 years ago, the Tetons went through several periods of glaciation with some areas of Jackson Hole covered by glaciers thick. This heavy


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: glaciation is unrelated to the uplift of the range itself and is instead part of a period of global cooling known as the Quaternary glaciation. Beginning with the Buffalo Glaciation and followed by the Bull Lake and then the Pinedale glaciation, which ended roughly 15,000 years ago, the landscape was greatly impacted by glacial activity. During the Pinedale glaciation, the landscape visible today was created as glaciers from the Yellowstone Plateau flowed south and formed Jackson Lake, while smaller glaciers descending from the Teton Range pushed rock moraines out from the canyons and left behind lakes near the base of


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: the mountains. The peaks themselves were carved into horns and arêtes and the canyons were transformed from water-eroded V-shapes to glacier-carved U-shaped valleys. Approximately a dozen glaciers currently exist in the park, but they are not ancient as they were all reestablished sometime between 1400 and 1850 AD during the Little Ice Age. Of these more recent glaciers, the largest is Teton Glacier, which sits below the northeast face of Grand Teton. Teton Glacier is long and wide, and nearly surrounded by the tallest summits in the range. Teton Glacier is also the best studied glacier in the range, and


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: researchers concluded in 2005 that the glacier could disappear in 30 to 75 years. West of the Cathedral Group near Hurricane Pass, Schoolroom Glacier is tiny but has well defined terminal and lateral moraines, a small proglacial lake and other typical glacier features in close proximity to each other. Grand Teton National Park has some of the most ancient rocks found in any American national park. The oldest rocks dated so far are 2,680 ± 12 million years old, though even older rocks are believed to exist in the park. Formed during the Archean Eon (4 to 2.5 billion years


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: ago), these metamorphic rocks include gneiss, schist and amphibolites. Metamorphic rocks are the most common types found in the northern and southern sections of the Teton Range. 2,545 million years ago, the metamorphic rocks were intruded by igneous granitic rocks, which are now visible in the central Tetons including Grand Teton and the nearby peaks. The light colored granites of the central Teton Range contrast with the darker metamorphic gneiss found on the flanks of Mount Moran to the north. Magma intrusions of diabase rocks 765 million years ago left dikes that can be seen on the east face of


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Mount Moran and Middle Teton. Granite and pegmatite intrusions also worked their way into fissures in the older gneiss. Precambrian rocks in Jackson Hole are buried deep under comparatively recent Tertiary volcanic and sedimentary deposits, as well as Pleistocene glacial deposits. By the close of the Precambrian, the region was intermittently submerged under shallow seas, and for 500 million years various types of sedimentary rocks were formed. During the Paleozoic (542 to 251 million years ago) sandstone, shale, limestone and dolomite were deposited. Though most of these sedimentary rocks have since eroded away from the central Teton Range, they are


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: still evident on the northern, southern and western flanks of the range. One notable exception is the sandstone Flathead Formation which continues to cap Mount Moran. Sedimentary layering of rocks in Alaska Basin, which is on the western border of Grand Teton National Park, chronicles a 120-million-year period of sedimentary deposition. Fossils found in the sedimentary rocks in the park include algae, brachiopods and trilobites. Sedimentary deposition continued during the Mesozoic (250–66 million years ago) and the coal seams found in the sedimentary rock strata indicate the region was densely forested during that era. Numerous coal seams of in thickness


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: are interspersed with siltstone, claystone and other sedimentary rocks. During the late Cretaceous, a volcanic arc west of the region deposited fine grained ash that later formed into bentonite, an important mineral resource. From the end of the Mesozoic to present, the region went through a series of uplifts and erosional sequences. Commencing 66 million years ago the Laramide orogeny was a period of mountain-building and erosion in western North America that created the ancestral Rocky Mountains. This cycle of uplift and erosion left behind one of the most complete non-marine Cenozoic rock sequences found in North America. Conglomerate rocks


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: composed of quartzite and interspersed with mudstone and sandstones were deposited during erosion from a now vanished mountain range that existed to the northwest of the current Teton Range. These deposits also have trace quantities of gold and mercury. During the Eocene and Oligocene, volcanic eruptions from the ancestral Absaroka Range buried the region under various volcanic deposits. Sedimentary basins developed in the region due to drop faulting, creating an ancestral Jackson Hole and by the Pliocene (10 million years ago), an ancestral Jackson Lake known as Teewinot Lake. During the Quaternary, landslides, erosion and glacial activity deposited soils and


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: rock debris throughout the Snake River valley of Jackson Hole and left behind terminal moraines which impound the current lakes. The most recent example of rapid alteration to the landscape occurred in 1925 just east of the park, when the Gros Ventre landslide was triggered by spring melt from a heavy snowpack as well as heavy rain. Grand Teton National Park and the surrounding region host over 1,000 species of vascular plants. With an altitude variance of over , the park has a number of different ecological zones including alpine tundra, the Rocky Mountains subalpine zone where spruce-fir forests are


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: dominant, and the valley floor, where a mixed conifer and deciduous forest zone occupies regions with better soils intermixed with sagebrush plains atop alluvial deposits. Additionally, wetlands near some lakes and in the valley floor adjacent to rivers and streams cover large expanses, especially along the Snake River near Oxbow Bend near Moran and Willow Flats near the Jackson Lake Lodge. Altitude, available soils, wildfire incidence, avalanches and human activities have a direct impact on the types of plant species in an immediate area. Where these various niches overlap is known as an ecotone. The range of altitude in Grand


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Teton National Park impacts the types of plant species found at various elevations. In the alpine zone above the tree line, which in Grand Teton National Park is at approximately , tundra conditions prevail. In this treeless region, hundreds of species of grass, wildflower, moss and lichen are found. In the subalpine region from the tree line to the base of the mountains, whitebark pine, limber pine, subalpine fir, and Engelmann spruce are dominant. In the valley floor, lodgepole pine is most common but Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, and blue spruce inhabit drier areas, while aspen, cottonwood, alder, and willow are


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: more commonly found around lakes, streams and wetlands. However, the tablelands above the Snake River channel are mostly sagebrush plains and in terms of acreage is the most widespread habitat in the park. The sagebrush plains or flats have 100 species of grasses and wildflowers. Slightly more elevated sections of the plains of the northern sections of Jackson Hole form forest islands with one such obvious example being Timbered Island. In this ecotone, forested islands surrounded by sagebrush expanses provide shelter for various animal species during the day and nearby grasses for night time foraging. While the flora of Grand


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Teton National Park is generally healthy, the whitebark pine, and to a lesser degree the lodgepole pine, are considered at risk. In the case of the whitebark pine, an invasive species of fungus known as white pine blister rust weakens the tree, making it more susceptible to destruction from endemic mountain pine beetles. Whitebark pines generally thrive at elevations above and produce large seeds that are high in fat content and an important food source for various species such as the grizzly bear, red squirrel and Clark's nutcracker. The species is considered to be a keystone and a foundation species;


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: keystone in that its ""ecological role (is) disproportionately large relative to its abundance"" and foundation in that it has a paramount role that ""defines ecosystem structure, function, and process"". Whitebark pine has generally had a lower incidence of blister rust infection throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem than in other regions such as Glacier National Park and the Cascade Range. The incidence of blister rust on whitebark pines in Yellowstone National Park is slightly lower than in Grand Teton. Though blister rust is not in itself the cause of increased mortality, its weakening effect on trees allows native pine beetles to


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: more easily infest the trees, increasing mortality. While general practice in national parks is to allow nature to take its course, the alarming trend of increased disease and mortality of the vital whitebark pine trees has sparked a collaborative effort amongst various government entities to intervene to protect the species. Sixty-one species of mammals have been recorded in Grand Teton National Park. This includes the gray wolf, which had been extirpated from the region by the early 1900s but migrated into the Grand Teton National Park from adjacent Yellowstone National Park after the species had been reintroduced there. The re-establishment


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: of the wolves has ensured that every indigenous mammal species now exists in the park. In addition to gray wolves, another 17 species of carnivores reside within Grand Teton National Park including grizzlies and the more commonly seen American black bear. Relatively common sightings of coyote, river otter, marten and badger and occasional sightings of cougar, Canadian lynx and wolverine are reported annually. A number of rodent species exist including yellow-bellied marmot, least chipmunk, muskrat, beaver, Uinta ground squirrel, pika, snowshoe hare, porcupine, and six species of bats. Of the larger mammals the most common are elk, which exist in


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: the thousands. Their migration route between the National Elk Refuge and Yellowstone National Park is through Grand Teton National Park, so while easily seen anytime of the year, they are most numerous in the spring and fall. Other ungulates in the park include moose, bison, and pronghorn--the fastest land mammal in the western hemisphere. The park's moose tend to stay near waterways and wetlands. Between 100–125 bighorn sheep dwell in the alpine and rocky zones of the peaks. Over 300 species of birds have been sighted in the park including the calliope hummingbird, the smallest bird species in North America,


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: as well as trumpeter swans, which is North America's largest waterfowl. In addition to trumpeter swans, another 30 species of waterfowl have been recorded including blue-winged teal, common merganser, American wigeon and the colorful but reclusive harlequin duck which is occasionally spotted in Cascade Canyon. Both bald and golden eagles and other birds of prey such as the osprey, red-tailed hawk, American kestrel and occasional sightings of peregrine falcon have been reported. Of the 14 species of owls reported, the most common is the great horned owl, though the boreal owl and great grey owl are also seen occasionally. A


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: dozen species of woodpeckers have been reported, as have a similar number of species of warblers, plovers and gulls. The vocal and gregarious black-billed magpie frequents campgrounds while Steller's jay and Clark's nutcracker are found in the backcountry. The sage covered plains of Jackson Hole are favored areas for sage grouse, Brewer's sparrow and sage thrashers, while the wetlands are frequented by great blue heron, American white pelican, sandhill crane and on rare occasions it's endangered relative, the whooping crane. The Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout (or "Snake River cutthroat trout") is the only native trout species in Grand Teton


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: National Park. It is also the only subspecies of cutthroat trout that is exclusively native to large streams and rivers. Various researchers have not been able to identify any genetic differences between the Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout and the Yellowstone cutthroat trout, though in terms of appearances, the Snake River subspecies has much smaller spots which cover a greater portion of the body, and the two subspecies inhabit different ecological niches. The Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout was identified by some researchers as a separate subspecies by the mid-1990s, and is managed as a distinct subspecies by the state


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: of Wyoming, but is not yet recognized as such by the neighboring states of Idaho and Montana. Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout is found only in the Snake River and tributaries below the Jackson Lake dam to the Palisades Reservoir in Idaho. Other non-native species of trout such as the rainbow trout and lake trout were introduced by the Wyoming Fish and Game Department or migrated out of Yellowstone. Today five trout species inhabit park waters. Native species of fish include the mountain whitefish, longnose dace, mountain sucker and non-native species include the Utah chub and Arctic grayling. Only four


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: species of reptiles are documented in the park: three species of snakes which are the wandering garter snake, the less commonly seen valley garter snake and rubber boa, as well as one lizard species, the northern sagebrush lizard, that was first reported in 1992. None of the species are venomous. Six amphibian species have been documented including the Columbia spotted frog, boreal chorus frog, tiger salamander and the increasingly rare boreal toad and northern leopard frog. A sixth amphibian species, the bullfrog, was introduced. An estimated 10,000 insect species frequent the park; they pollinate plants, provide a food source for


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: birds, fish, mammals and other animals, and help in the decomposition of wood. In one example of the importance of insects to the ecosystem, swarms of Army cutworm moths die in huge numbers after mating and provide a high fat and protein diet for bears and other predators. One study concluded that when this moth species is most available, bears consume 40,000 moths per day which is roughly 20,000 kcal/day. Grand Teton National Park is the only American national park that permits hunting, but only of elk in an effort to keep the populations of that species regulated. This provision


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: was included in the legislation that combined Jackson Hole National Monument and Grand Teton National Park in 1950. While some national parks in Alaska permit subsistence hunting by indigenous natives and a few other National Park Service managed areas allow hunting under highly regulated circumstances, hunting in American national parks is not generally allowed. In Grand Teton National Park, hunters are required to obtain Wyoming hunting licenses and be deputized as park rangers. Hunting is restricted to areas east of the Snake River and north of Moran, Wyoming, the hunt is permitted only east of U.S. Route 89. Proponents of


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: continuing the elk hunt, which occurs in the fall, argue that the elk herd would become overpopulated without it, leading to vegetation degradation from overgrazing elk herds. Opponents cite that there has been an increase of predators such as the wolf and grizzly bear in Grand Teton National Park, rendering the annual hunt unnecessary and exposing hunters to attacks by grizzly bears as they become accustomed to feeding on remains left behind from the hunt. The role of wildfire is an important one for plant and animal species diversity. Many tree species have evolved to mainly germinate after a wildfire.


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Regions of the park that have experienced wildfire in historical times have greater species diversity after reestablishment than those regions that have not been influenced by fire. Though the Yellowstone fires of 1988 had minimal impact on Grand Teton National Park, studies conducted before and reaffirmed after that event concluded that the suppression of natural wildfires during the middle part of the 20th century decreased plant species diversity and natural regeneration of plant communities. One study conducted 15 years before the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fires concluded that human suppression of wildfire had adversely impacted Aspen tree groves and other


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: forest types. The majority of conifer species in Grand Teton National Park are heavily dependent on wildfire and this is particularly true of the Lodgepole Pine. Though extremely hot canopy or crown fires tend to kill Lodgepole Pine seeds, lower severity surface fires usually result in a higher post wildfire regeneration of this species. In accordance with a better understanding of the role wildfire plays in the environment, the National Park Service and other land management agencies have developed Fire Management Plans which provide a strategy for wildfire management and are expected to best enhance the natural ecosystem. Grand Teton


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: National Park has a semi-arid climate with the wettest months between November and January, mostly in the form of snow. The park averages of snow in the mountains and in the valley annually. In January, the daily temperature range averages between during the day to at night. During the month of July, the daily temperature range is . The record high is and the record low is . Temperatures above the valley in the mountains during the summer average cooler for every of altitude gained, so high altitude passes may remain snow-covered until mid-July. Thunderstorms are common during the summer,


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: especially over the mountains; by contrast, no tornados have ever been reported within the park. The F4 Teton-Yellowstone tornado was a high altitude tornado which touched down northeast of the park on the border of the Teton Wilderness of Bridger-Teton National Forest and Yellowstone National Park. Grand Teton National Park is more than air distance from any major urban or industrial area, and localized human activities have generally had a very low environmental impact on the surrounding region. However, levels of ammonium and nitrogen have been trending slightly upwards due to deposition from rain and snow that is believed to


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: originate from regional agricultural activities. Additionally, there has also been a slight increase in mercury and pesticides that have been detected in snow and some alpine lakes. Ozone and haze may be impacting overall visibility levels. Grand Teton National Park, in partnership with other agencies, erected the first air quality monitoring station in the park in 2011. The station is designed to check for various pollutants as well as ozone levels and weather. A 2005 study of the water of Jackson, Jenny and Taggart Lakes indicated that all three of these lakes had virtually pristine water quality. Of the three


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: lakes, only on Taggart Lake are motorized boats prohibited, yet little difference in water quality was detected in the three lakes. In a study published in 2002, the Snake River was found to have better overall water quality than other river systems in Wyoming, and low levels of pollution from anthropogenic sources. Grand Teton National Park is a popular destination for mountain and rock climbers partly because the mountains are easily accessible by road. Trails are well marked and routes to the summits of most peaks are long established, and for the experienced and fit, most peaks can be climbed


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: in one day. The highest maintained trails climb from the floor of Jackson Hole over to mountain passes that are sometimes called saddles or divides. From these passes, the climbs follow routes that require varying skill levels. Climbers do not need a permit but are encouraged to voluntarily register their climbing plans with the National Park Service and inform associates of their itinerary. Any climb requiring an overnight stay in the backcountry does require a permit. Climbers are essentially on their own to determine their own skill levels and are encouraged to not take unnecessary risks. The Exum Mountain Guides,


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: which is considered one of the finest mountaineering guide services in the U.S., as well as the Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, offer instruction and climbing escorts for those who are less experienced or unfamiliar with various routes. An average of 4,000 climbers per year make an attempt to summit Grand Teton and most ascend up Garnet Canyon to a mountain pass called the Lower Saddle, which is between Grand Teton and Middle Teton. From the Lower Saddle, climbers often follow the Owen-Spalding or Exum Ridge routes to the top of Grand Teton though there are 38 distinct routes to the


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: summit. The north face route to the summit of Grand Teton is a world renowned climb involving a dozen distinct pitches and is rated at grade 5.8 in difficulty for the vertical ascent. On a connecting ridge and just north of Grand Teton lies Mount Owen, and though lower in altitude, this peak is considered more difficult to ascend. Middle Teton is another popular climb that is most easily summited from a saddle between it and South Teton. Well north of Grand Teton lies Mount Moran, which is further from trailheads and more difficult to access and ascend. The Direct


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: South Buttress of Mount Moran provides a vertical mile of climbing that was considered the most difficult climb in the U.S. when first accomplished in 1953. Other popular climbing destinations include Buck Mountain, Symmetry Spire, Mount Saint John, Mount Wister, Teewinot Mountain and Nez Perce Peak and each mountain has at least six established routes to their summits. Grand Teton National Park has five front-country vehicular access campgrounds. The largest are the Colter Bay and Gros Ventre campgrounds, and each has 350 campsites which can accommodate large recreational vehicles. Lizard Creek and Signal Mountain campgrounds have 60 and 86 campsites


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: respectively, while the smaller Jenny Lake campground has only 49 sites for tent use only. Additionally, full hookups for recreational vehicles are at the concessionaire managed 112 campsites at Colter Bay Village and another 100 at Flagg Ranch in the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway. Though all front-country campgrounds are only open from late spring to late fall, primitive winter camping is permitted at Colter Bay near the visitor center. All campsites accessible only on foot or by horseback are considered backcountry campsites and they are available by permit only, but camping is allowed in most of these backcountry zones


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: year-round. The National Park Service has a combination of specific sites and zones for backcountry camping with a set carrying capacity of overnight stays per zone to protect the resources from overcrowding. Open fires are not permitted in the backcountry and all food must be stored in an Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee approved bear-resistant container. As of 2012, only four brands of bear-resistant containers had been approved for use in the Grand Teton National Park backcountry. Additionally, hikers may use an approved bear spray to elude aggressive bears. The park has of hiking trails, ranging in difficulty from easy to


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: strenuous. The easiest hiking trails are located in the valley, where the altitude changes are generally minimal. In the vicinity of Colter Bay Village, the Hermitage Point Trail is long and considered easy. Several other trails link Hermitage Point with Emma Matilda Lake and Two Ocean Lake Trails, also considered to be relatively easy hikes in the Jackson Lake Lodge area. Other easy hikes include the Valley Trail which runs from Trapper Lake in the north to the south park boundary near Teton Village and the Jenny Lake Trail which circles the lake. Ranging from moderate to strenuous in difficulty,


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: trails leading into the canyons are rated based on distance and more importantly on the amount of elevation change. The greatest elevation change is found on the Paintbrush Canyon, Alaska Basin and Garnet Canyon Trails, where elevation increases of over are typical. Horses and pack animals are permitted on almost all trails in the park; however, there are only five designated backcountry camping locations for pack animals and these campsites are far from the high mountain passes. Bicycles are limited to vehicle roadways only and the park has widened some roads to provide a safer biking experience. A paved multi-use


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: pathway opened in 2009 and provides non-motorized biking access from the town of Jackson to South Jenny Lake. Grand Teton National Park allows boating on all the lakes in Jackson Hole, but motorized boats can only be used on Jackson and Jenny Lakes. While there is no maximum horsepower limit on Jackson Lake (though there is a noise restriction), Jenny Lake is restricted to 10 horsepower. Only non-motorized boats are permitted on Bearpaw, Bradley, Emma Matilda, Leigh, Phelps, String, Taggart and Two Ocean Lakes. There are four designated boat launches located on Jackson Lake and one on Jenny Lake. Additionally,


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: sailboats, windsurfers and water skiing are only allowed on Jackson Lake and no jet skis are permitted on any of the park waterways. All boats are required to comply with various safety regulations including personal flotation devices for each passenger. Only non-motorized watercraft are permitted on the Snake River. All other waterways in the park are off limits to boating, and this includes all alpine lakes and tributary streams of the Snake River. In 2010, Grand Teton National Park started requiring all boats to display an Aquatic Invasive Species decal issued by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department or a


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Yellowstone National Park boat permit. In an effort to keep the park waterways free of various invasive species such as the Zebra mussel and whirling disease, boaters are expected to abide by certain regulations including displaying a self-certification of compliance on the dashboard of any vehicle attached to an empty boat trailer. Grand Teton National Park fisheries are managed by the Wyoming Fish and Game Department and a Wyoming state fishing license is required to fish all waterways in Grand Teton National Park. The creel limit for trout is restricted to six per day, including no more than three cutthroat


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: trout with none longer than , while the maximum length of other trout species may not exceed , except those taken from Jackson Lake, where the maximum allowable length is . There are also restrictions as to the seasonal accessibility to certain areas as well as the types of bait and fishing tackle permitted. Visitors are allowed to snowshoe and do cross-country skiing and are not restricted to trails. The Teton Park Road between the Taggart Lake trailhead to Signal Mountain Campground is closed to vehicular traffic during the winter and this section of the road is groomed for skiing


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: and snowshoeing traffic. The park service offers guided snowshoe tours daily from the main headquarters located in Moose, Wyoming. Overnight camping is allowed in the winter in the backcountry with a permit and visitors should inquire about avalanche dangers. The only location in Grand Teton National Park where snowmobiles are permitted is on Jackson Lake. The National Park Service requires that all snowmobiles use "Best Available Technology" (BAT) and lists various models of snowmobiles that are permitted, all of which are deemed to provide the least amount of air pollution and maximize noise abatement. All snowmobiles must be less than


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: 10 years old and have odometer readings of less than . Additionally, snowmobile use is for the purposes of accessing ice fishing locations only. Snowmobile access was permitted between Moran Junction and Flagg Ranch adjacent to the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway so that travelers using the Continental Divide Snowmobile Trail could traverse between Bridger-Teton National Forest and Yellowstone National Park. However, in 2009, winter use planners closed this since unguided snowmobile access into Yellowstone National Park was also discontinued. The Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center adjacent to the park headquarters at Moose, Wyoming, is open year-round. Opened


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: in 2007 to replace an old, inadequate visitor center, the facility is named for the late U.S. Senator Craig Thomas and designed by acclaimed architect, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. It was financed with a combination of federal grants and private donations. An adjoining 154-seat auditorium was opened to the public in April 2011. To the north at Colter Bay Village on Jackson Lake, the Colter Bay Visitor Center & Indian Arts Museum is open from the beginning of May to the early October. The Colter Bay Visitor Center & Indian Arts Museum has housed the David T. Vernon Indian Arts Exhibit


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: since 1972. The Colter Bay Visitor Center was built in 1956 and was determined in 2005 to be substandard for the proper care and display of the Indian arts collection. During the winter of 2011–2012, a $150,000 renovation project was completed at the center and a portion of the arts collection was made available for viewing when the center opened for the season in May 2012. South of Moose on the Moose–Wilson Road, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve Center is located on land that was privately owned by Laurance S. Rockefeller and is situated on Phelps Lake. Donated to Grand


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Teton National Park and opened to the public in 2008, the property was once part of the JY Ranch, the first dude ranch in Jackson Hole. At Jenny Lake, the Jenny Lake Visitor Center is open from mid-May to mid-September. This visitor center is within the Jenny Lake Ranger Station Historic District and is the same structure photographer Harrison Crandall had constructed as an art studio in the 1920s. Contracted through the National Park Service, various concessionaire entities manage lodging facilities inside the park. The largest such facility is the Jackson Lake Lodge, which is managed by the Grand Teton


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: Lodge Company. Located near Jackson Lake Dam, the Jackson Lake Lodge has a total of 385 rooms, meeting facilities, a retail shop and a restaurant. The Grand Teton Lodge Company also manages the Jenny Lake Lodge, which consists of cabins and a restaurant and Colter Bay Village, which has cabins, a restaurant, a grocery store, a laundry and a marina. South of Jackson Lake Dam, the Signal Mountain Lodge is managed by Forever Resorts and provides cabins, a marina, a gas station and a restaurant. The American Alpine Club has hostel dormitory style accommodations primarily reserved for mountain climbers at


title: "Grand Teton National Park" content: the Grand Teton Climber's Ranch. Adjacent to the Snake River in Moose, Wyoming, Dornan's is an inholding on private land which has year-round cabin accommodations and related facilities. Lodging is also available at the Triangle X Ranch, another private inholding in the park and the last remaining dude ranch within park boundaries. Grand Teton National Park Grand Teton National Park is an American national park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately , the park includes the major peaks of the Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Grand Teton National Park


title: "Linear congruential generator" content: those that do not. This is especially noticeable in scripts that use the mod operation to reduce range; modifying the random number mod 2 will lead to alternating 0 and 1 without truncation. LCGs are fast and require minimal memory (one modulo-"m" number, often 32 or 64 bits) to retain state. This makes them valuable for simulating multiple independent streams. Although LCGs have a few specific weaknesses, many of their flaws come from having too small a state. The fact that people have been lulled for so many years into using them with such small moduli can be seen as


title: "United States Secretary of Energy" content: Peña. Spencer Abraham became the first Arab American to hold the position on January 20, 2001, serving under the administration of George W. Bush. Steven Chu became the first Asian American to hold the position on January 20, 2009, serving under the administration of Barack Obama. He is also the longest-serving Secretary of Energy and the first individual to join the Cabinet having received a Nobel Prize. (6) (8) As of , there are nine living former Secretaries of Energy, the oldest being Charles Duncan Jr. (served 1979–1981, born 1926). The most recent Secretary of Energy to die was Samuel


title: Cheetah content: Cheetah The cheetah (; "Acinonyx jubatus") is a large cat of the subfamily Felinae that occurs in Southern, North and East Africa, and a few localities in Iran. The species is IUCN Red Listed as vulnerable, as it suffered a substantial decline in its historic range in the 20th century due to habitat loss, poaching, illegal pet trade, and conflict with humans. By 2016, the global cheetah population has been estimated at approximately 7,100 individuals in the wild. Several African countries have taken steps to improve cheetah conservation measures. It is the fastest land animal. The only extant member of


title: Cheetah content: the genus "Acinonyx", the cheetah was formally described by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1775. The cheetah is characterised by a slender body, deep chest, spotted coat, small rounded head, black tear-like streaks on the face, long thin legs and long spotted tail. Its lightly built, slender form is in sharp contrast with the robust build of the big cats, making it more similar to the cougar. The cheetah reaches at the shoulder, and weighs . Although taller than the leopard, it is notably smaller than the lion. Typically yellowish tan or rufous to greyish white, the coat is


title: Cheetah content: uniformly covered with nearly 2,000 solid black spots. Cheetahs are active mainly during the day, with hunting their major activity. Adult males are sociable despite their territoriality, forming groups called coalitions. Females are not territorial; they may be solitary or live with their offspring in home ranges. Carnivores, cheetah mainly prey upon antelopes and gazelles. They will stalk their prey to within , charge towards it and kill it by tripping it during the chase and biting its throat to suffocate it to death. Cheetahs can reach speeds of in short bursts, but the top end speed of the cheetah


title: Cheetah content: is disputed by more recent measurements. The average speed of a cheetah while hunting is about . Cheetahs are induced ovulators, breeding throughout the year. Gestation is nearly three months long, resulting in a litter of typically three to five cubs (the number can vary from one to eight). Weaning occurs at six months; siblings tend to stay together for some time. Cheetah cubs face higher mortality than most other mammals, especially in the Serengeti region. Cheetahs inhabit a variety of habitatsdry forests, scrub forests, and savannahs. Because of its prowess at hunting, the cheetah was tamed and used to


title: Cheetah content: kill game at hunts in the past. The animal has been widely depicted in art, literature, advertising and animation. The vernacular name "cheetah" is derived from "cītā" (), which in turn comes from the Sanskrit word "" (चित्रकायः) meaning "bright" or "variegated". The first recorded use of this word has been dated back to 1610. An alternative name for the cheetah is "hunting leopard". The scientific name of the cheetah is "Acinonyx jubatus". The generic name "Acinonyx" originated from the combination of two Greek words: "akinetos" means motionless, and "onyx" means claw. A rough translation of the word would be


title: Cheetah content: "non-moving claws", a reference to the limited retractability (capability of being drawn inside the paw) of the claws of the cheetah relative to other cats'. The specific name "jubatus" means "maned" in Latin, referring to the dorsal crest of this animal. The cheetah is the only extant species of the genus "Acinonyx". It belongs to Felinae, the subfamily of Felidae that also includes lynxes, wildcats, and the puma. The species was first described by German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in his 1775 publication "Die Säugethiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen". The cheetah's closest relatives are the


title: Cheetah content: cougar ("Puma concolor") and the jaguarundi ("Herpailurus yagouaroundi"). These three species together form the "Puma" lineage, one of the eight lineages of Felidae. The sister group of the "Puma" lineage is a clade of smaller Old World cats that includes the genera "Felis", "Otocolobus" and "Prionailurus". Although the cheetah is an Old World cat, molecular evidence indicates that the three species of the "Puma" lineage evolved in North America two to three million years ago, where they possibly had a common ancestor during the Miocene. They possibly diverged from this ancestor 8.25 million years ago. The cheetah diverged from the


title: Cheetah content: puma and the jaguarundi around 6.7 million years ago. A genome study suggests that cheetahs experienced two genetic bottlenecks in their history, the first about 100,000 years ago and the second about 12,000 years ago, greatly lowering their genetic variability. These bottlenecks may have been associated with migrations across Asia and into Africa (with the current African population founded about 12,000 years ago), and/or with a depletion of prey species at the end of the Pleistocene. Cheetah fossils found in the lower beds of the Olduvai Gorge site in northern Tanzania date back to the Pleistocene. The extinct species of


title: Cheetah content: "Acinonyx" are older than the cheetah, with the oldest known from the late Pliocene; these fossils are about three million years old. These species include "Acinonyx pardinensis" (Pliocene epoch), notably larger than the modern cheetah, and "A.intermedius" (mid-Pleistocene period). While the range of "A.intermedius" stretched from Europe to China, "Apardinensis" spanned over Eurasia as well as eastern and southern Africa. A variety of larger cheetah believed to have existed in Europe fell to extinction around half a million years ago. Extinct North American cats resembling the cheetah had historically been assigned to "Felis", "Puma" or "Acinonyx". However, a phylogenetic analysis


title: Cheetah content: in 1990 placed these species under the genus "Miracinonyx". "Miracinonyx" exhibited a high degree of similarity with the cheetah. However, in 1998, a DNA analysis showed that "Miracinonyx inexpectatus", "M.studeri", and "M.trumani" (early to late Pleistocene epoch), found in North America, are more closely related to the cougar than modern cheetahs. In 1775, Schreber described a stuffed cheetah skin from the Cape of Good Hope. In the 19th and 20th centuries, several cheetah specimen were described and proposed as subspecies. The following table is based on the classification of the species provided in "Mammal Species of the World". It also


title: Cheetah content: reflects the classification used by IUCN Red List assessors and the revision by the Cat Classification Task Force: The Cat Classification Task Force have added that the divergence between "soemmeringii", "jubatus" and "venaticus" is very recent, and these may represent a single subspecies, and that further study may reveal there are only two or even a single subspecies. The diploid number of chromosomes in the cheetah is 38, the same as in most other felids (though for the ocelot and the margay the number is 36). A remarkable feature of the cheetah is its unusually low genetic variability in comparison


title: Cheetah content: to other felids. Consequently, individuals show considerable genetic similarity to one another, as illustrated by skin grafts, electrophoretic evidence and reproductive surveys. A prolonged period of inbreeding, following a genetic bottleneck during the last ice age, is believed to be the reason behind this anomaly. The consequences of such genetic uniformity might include a low sperm count, decreased sperm motility, deformed flagella, difficulty in captive breeding and susceptibility to disease. The king cheetah is a variety of cheetah with a rare mutation for cream-coloured fur marked with large, blotchy spots and three dark, wide stripes extending from their neck to


title: Cheetah content: the tail. In 1926 Major A.Cooper wrote about an animal he had shot near modern-day Harare. Describing the animal, he noted its remarkable similarity to the cheetah, but the body of this individual was covered with fur as thick as that of a snow leopard and the spots merged to form stripes. He suggested that it could be a cross between a leopard and a cheetah. After further similar animals were discovered, it was established that they had non-retractable clawsa characteristic feature of the cheetah. English zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock described it as a new species by the name of


title: Cheetah content: "Acinonyx rex" ("rex" being Latin for "king", the name translated to "king cheetah"); However, he changed his position on its species status in 1939. English hunter-naturalist Abel Chapman considered it to be a colour morph of the spotted cheetah. Since 1927 the king cheetah has been reported five more times in the wild; an individual was photographed in 1975. In May 1981 two spotted sisters gave birth at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre (South Africa), and each litter contained one king cheetah. Each sister had mated with a wild male from the Transvaal region (where king cheetahs had


title: Cheetah content: been recorded). Further king cheetahs were later born at the Centre. They have been known to exist in Zimbabwe, Botswana and northern Transvaal. In 2012 the cause of this alternative coat pattern was found to be a mutation in the gene for transmembrane aminopeptidaseQ (Taqpep), the same gene responsible for the striped "mackerel" versus blotchy "classic" patterning seen in tabby cats. Hence, genetically the king cheetah is simply a variety of the common cheetah and not a separate species. This case is similar to that of the black panthers. The appearance is caused by reinforcement of a recessive allele. As


title: Cheetah content: a result, if two mating cheetahs carry the mutated allele, then a quarter of their offspring can be expected to be king cheetahs. The cheetah is a felid with several distinctive featuresa slender body, deep chest, spotted pelage, a small rounded head, black tear-like streaks on the face, long thin legs and a long spotted tail. Its lightly built, slender form is in sharp contrast with the robust build of the big cats. The head-and-body length ranges from . Adult cheetahs average at the shoulder, and weigh . It is taller than the leopard, which stands nearly at the shoulder.


title: Cheetah content: The weight range of the cheetah overlaps with that of the leopard, which weighs . On the other hand, the cheetah is significantly shorter than the lion, whose average height is nearly . Moreover, it is much lighter than the lion, among which females weigh and the much heavier males weigh . Based on measurements, the smallest cheetahs have been reported from the Sahara, northeastern Africa and Iran. A sexually dimorphic species, males are generally larger than females. The head is small and rounded. Saharan cheetah have narrow canine faces. Small, short, and rounded, the ears are marked by black


title: Cheetah content: patches on the back; the edges and base of the ears are tawny. The high-set eyes have round pupils. The whiskers, shorter and fewer in number than those of other felids, are fine and inconspicuous. The pronounced tear streaks are unique to the cheetah. These streaks originate from the corner of the eyes and run down the nose to the mouth. Their role is obscurethey may be serving as a shield for the eyes against the sun's glare, a helpful feature as the cheetah hunts mainly during the day; another purpose could be to define facial expressions. Basically yellowish tan