And the squirrels themselves are food for the boreal owls. Biologists Mary Edwards, Roger Rosentreter, and Ken Berger examine a football-sized flying squirrel nest made entirely from species of Bryoria. Bryoria fremontii is one of the Bryoria species that northern flying squirrels use as nesting material and food. Their very favorite delicacies, truffles, aren't always available. The Yunnan snub-nosed monkey , an endangered species in China, subsists mostly on two species of Bryoria.
Mountain goats eat lichens.
In southeastern Alaska, they eat Lobaria linita among other species. The best known eaters of lichens are, of course, the reindeer and caribou. Not surprisingly, a large number of related lichen species that the reindeer and caribou eat are known, depending on which continent they inhabit, as reindeer lichens or caribou lichens. Cladina stellaris is the most heavily eaten species. The golden plover uses Thamnolia vermicularis in its nests.