Case Study: The Wolf, The Moose, And The Fir Tree

Many threats to the red wolf include loss of habitat and ecosystem due to human activities such as deforestation and degradation of environment agriculture and shooting as well as climate change as red wolves generally prefer swampy wet lands.

Throughout the past decades it has become evident that Isle Royale does not receive many visitors when compared to other National Parks. Due to this human interaction with the national park has been kept to a minimum over the years A sub-claim that can be formed by this information is that Isle Royale has maintained such quality wildlife because of its lack of human interactment. One subclaim I have formed based on my research is that humans only have a negative impact on Isle Royale. Rolf Peterson: Leader of the Wolf Moose Project on Isle Royale claims “In the island’s wilderness, which is as pristine as any in the continental United States, wolves have inadvertently recorded [in their teeth] the two

“Restoring an ecologically complete ecosystem in Yellowstone requires the return of willows--and with them, beavers. There's a clear threshold for ecosystem recovery. Willow stands must be more than 6 feet tall, the scientists found. That height is important, says Marshall. Then willows are beyond the reach of browsing elk, and can serve as seed sources for new young willows. Once willows have returned, beavers will gnaw down a certain number of them to build dams. The dams will further slow stream flow, allowing yet more willows to grow. The results offer new insights on the role of wolf-driven trophic cascades in the Yellowstone ecosystem, says Hobbs. Trophic cascades like that in Yellowstone occur when predators--or the lack thereof--in an ecosystem change the abundance or alter traits of their prey, in turn affecting the next lower trophic level.” ("National Science Foundation", 2013)

-Wolves helped to maintain exploding number of deer and elk that were hurting biodiversity in the park.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service are considering removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list once Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have enough wolves to be deemed sufficient to continue to expand the wolf population, requiring only that each of these three states have a management plan in effect to prevent the gray wolf from becoming endangered again. With the current attitude of the governments in these states, the wolf should not lose their federal support under the Endangered Species Act as it would merely serve to cause the wolves to become endangered once again, or at best, held to the absolute minimum population that the states can pass off as “viable, self-sustaining populations”

The declining wolf population has turned around and is now increasing at a steady pace. The National Park Service says “During the 1980s, wolves began to reestablish breeding packs in Northwestern Montana; 50-60 wolves inhabited Montana in 1994.”(NPS) We are very fortunate for the quick acts of transferring the wolves from Canada down to the Yellowstone National Park and to the intense research that has been done

The Acadian forest in Canada takes up 12.1 million hectares, and can be distinguished from other parts of Canadian forests by its location in the lowlands and deep valleys and by its mixed hardwood and softwood composition. The position of these trees in deep valleys isolates them from other forests, and limits their ability to further naturally spread their population geographically, and causes them to be more significantly impacted by disturbances. The Acadian forest region covers the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, with a rich diversity of plant and animal species consisting of many shade-tolerant trees and lichens. Yet these shade-tolerant trees are slowly transitioning into small seedlings as logging practices abolish old trees. The old-growth hardwood population in specific provides critical habitats for animal species though these trees are declining in numbers due to extensive logging. With the declining old-growth trees, the number of critical habitats will also decline and animal species will most likely die out. These regions are affected by climate change at the same time, which increases the vulnerability of Acadian biodiversity.

Global temperature increases and associated increases in precipitation in northern Nova Scotia will likely have detrimental impacts on already threatened species. The Canadian Lynx population is decreasing quickly due to human hunting for its fur and its habitats being destroyed forcing them to continuously migrate north. They have evolved to thrive in snow cover and cold temperatures with their large snowshoe-like paws and thick fur, which gives them an advantage to capture prey compared to other predators such as coyotes or bobcats ("Threats To Lynx" 2012, Hoving et al. 2003). The lynx is a specialist predator focusing on the snowshoe hare as its primary source of food. The hare and the lynx have a very interconnected population cycle that lasts roughly 10 years (Yan et al. 2013). Hares experience large fluctuations in their population cycle based on a number of factors that influence the ecosystem. When hare populations are in decline, in periods where nature must regenerate, the lynx population is also shown to decrease, and vice versa with an approximate two year lag period for the lynx (("Lynx-Snowshoe Hare Cycle | Environment And Natural

One of the thoughts that left the contextual analysis is to compellingly decrease the wolf populace. This thought won't work, and really make the circumstance of caribou populace diminishing more regrettable.

When this happened the wolves had to adapt to the new caribou migratory patterns. One time in the middle of hunting season the migratory

Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are marine mammals capable of spending their entire lives in water. Being carnivorous in nature, they feed on sea urchins, crabs, fishes, mussels and clams. They are referred to as keystone species due to their profound impact on marine ecology. The interaction between sea otters, sea urchins and kelp forests has been studied as a model of the impact of predator-prey interaction on community ecology. Sea otters are keystone predators, whose presence has a far-reaching influence on the marine food web by affecting the population of sea urchins in particular, and kelp forests & other marine organisms in general. There has been a steep decline in sea otter populations due to water pollution and exploitation for

Some people suggested alternative approaches for the project with one being very intriguing. A participant proposed the idea of introducing a pack of sterile wolves. Their argument was that, they are a natural predator of the deer with a very high success rate and since they are sterile, they will die out after one generation. Although this is an idea with many controversies, it was refreshing to see people on the island thinking ‘outside the box’ and coming with a way in mitigating the effects. Another interesting suggestion was the use of poison. The participant advocates that it is the fastest way to get rid of a large population and the cheapest approach in a sense. There are several problems that arise with this suggestion as we discussed in class. The use of poison may be effective looking from a scale of a single species, however, all species are part of a food chain and the trophic cascade will take into effect. With the deer being killed by poison, those digesting the carcass will also intake some of the poison and so on after its death from the poison. It is important to acknowledge that the deer are part of the current ecosystem and are contributing to the nutrient cycle. By adding poison into this system, it will not only affect the deer population, it will affect the entire ecosystem, which, I believe, the participant did not take into account.

As a result of habitat fragmentation and extensive hunting pressure, gray wolf (Canis lupus) populations have declined dramatically in Europe and elsewhere during recent centuries. The natural history of European populations of grey wolf (Canis lupus) has been characterized by a dramatic decline in numbers during the past few hundred years (Boitani 2003). Small and fragmented populations have persisted, but often only in the presence of large numbers of dogs, which increase the potential for hybridization and introgression to deleteriously affect wolf populations.

Wolves were losing habitat to agricultural development, and farmers and ranchers shot, trapped, and poisoned them to protect livestock and promote the abundance of elk. Several wolves went to go stay in a very cold climate where they could have rabbits, squirrels, deer, and several other animals for food. Wolves can survive in very cold weather because they breed quickly. During the fall wolves would get ready for the winter by growing their under fur. The insulated undercoat helps keep wolves warm and dry during the winter in the cold climate. Also, before winter hits, the males go out and hunt most of the fall to have enough food during the winter. They also go and build a cozy den for them to live in to keep their pups warm and cozy. Wolf pups that were born this spring, usually in late April or early May, grow rapidly in summer and fall. By winter, the pups need to be large enough to keep up with their pack. The pups don’t grow their undercoat yet until they get older. Once they get older they finally grow their undercoat to stay

First of all, there were only three wolves spotted this season. In the article,” Isle Royale study could soon be gone with the wolves” it says, “Fifteen days passed before Peterson and his crew spotted 3 resident wolves on the island.” Fifteen days into the study passed before these wolves were spotted.