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Wolves of Yellowstone

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46 views3 pages

Wolves of Yellowstone

Uploaded by

mikaelagalvez5
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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WOLVES OF YELLOWSTONE

In 1995, something really exciting happened in the


nation's first national park, Yellowstone: 41 wild wolves
were reintroduced there by scientists. After 100 years
of being hunted, wolves could once again call that place
home.

The wolves thrived, but something else very surprising


happened. Their return had a spectacular effect on the
landscape, an effect that spread wider than anyone thought possible. So how did all
this happen?

In the past, wolves were seen as a threat to people and domestic animals, and they
were exterminated from the Yellowstone area in the 1920s.

Since the elks’ main predator was gone, their


population more than doubled. Elks are both
grazers and browsers, so they eat grass, shrubs,
and trees. They overgrazed the entire park,
upsetting the natural balance of the ecosystem.

Mammals like mice and rabbits could not use the


plants to hide from predators, and their populations fell dramatically.

Grizzly bears suffered because the elk ate the berries,


which bears badly need to build up fat before hibernating.

Pollinators like bees and


hummingbirds had fewer
flowers to feed on, songbirds
had less trees
to nest in.

But perhaps the elks’ most devastating impact was on the park's riverbanks.

When wolves lived in Yellowstone, elks were vulnerable when they went down to the
rivers to drink. They would never spend too long by the water, where they could be
attacked. But with the apex predators gone, the elks gathered in great herds on the
lush riverbanks and they ate the shrubs faster than the shrubs could grow.

The massive elks’ hooves eroded the riverbanks, so the rivers and streams became
clouded with soil. The homes of the fish became murky; and without trees and clean
water, beavers couldn't build their dams to live in. Without the protection of the
dams, fish, amphibians and otters suffered even more, and all because of the missing
wolf.

Now, with at least 100 gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park, their reintroduction
is having an effect that even surprised scientists. Wolves have contributed to
bringing elk numbers down from 17,000 in 1995 to just 4,000 today. Since only the
healthiest of the elks survived, the elk population is much more robust.

All these elk kills mean more carcasses for scavengers like
coyotes, eagles, and ravens. Eagle and raven

Grizzly bear numbers have also increased. The grizzlies


benefit from the wolves' elk kills, too; and less elks also
means more berries.

The elks' fear of wolves gives the riverbank trees, like aspen and willow, a chance to
regenerate. They can grow to five times their original size in just six years. The
songbirds are returning, too; and bigger trees along the rivers means greater root
structures, which means stronger riverbanks and less
erosion.

Clean water and big trees is beaver paradise! The


return of the beaver dams creates new habitats for
fish, amphibians, reptiles, and even otters.

Beaver on its dam

Otter eating fish

Snake (= reptile) eating a toad (= amphibian)

This shows just some of the trickle-down effects of the wolves' reintroduction,
known to scientists as a trophic cascade. The trophic cascade doesn't stop there,
though -the wolves are even helping us humans!
In 2005, over 100,000 visitors went to Yellowstone National Park just to see the
wolves, pumping $30 million into the local economy, money for jobs and livelihoods.

The wolf's benefits also cascade down to the 106,000 residents of Billings, Montana:
the source of their drinking water, Yellowstone River, is now cleaner.

Who would have thought that just bringing back some wolves could produce such far-
reaching benefits for nature and for people? From the tips of taller trees down to
its cleaner rivers, these wild wolves have rebalanced and restored our nation's very
first national park.

Source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/wolves-yellowstone/

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