Small mammals also browse red huckleberry. Berries of red huckleberry are eaten by a wide variety of birds and mammals.
Berries are highly palatable to a wide variety of birds and mammals.
It often forms dense thickets which may serve as hiding, resting, or nesting sites for many smaller birds and mammals. Dried fruit provided an important source of vitamin C during the winter months. Both black and grizzly bears typically exploit areas with dense concentrations of berries. The habitat value of huckleberry shrubfields to grizzly bears can be increased by permanent, or at least seasonal, road closures, by coordinating timber harvest dates to have minimal impact on habitat use patterns, and by considering the cumulative effects of habitat modification across a broad area.