Research Paper On Grey Wolf

Wolves have always been a symbol of the wild, free in spirit and roamers of the land. These animals are considered majestic and protectors of the wilderness. They have always roamed the western United States, although their population has fluctuated over time. Over the past 10 years wolf reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park has been a controversial topic to those of the United States. As of 1995, wolves have been reintroduced into the park. This has come with some strong opposition and yet has prevailed. The future of the wolf in Yellowstone park is now looking bright, although not certain since there still are those who want them banished again.

During the 1940’s, wolves were exterminated from Colorado and few have come back since. As a result the ecosystem that we have in Colorado is somewhat skewed due to the absence of them. Many people think that wolves are a nuisance and would get in the way of the agricultural style that colorado has. However, wolves are considered a keystone species which means their “presence would reinvigorate the natural order” (clifford). For this reason wolves should be reintroduced into montezuma county. The reintroduction would greatly benefit and restore the balance of our ecosystem.

So far it has become evident that humans do not have a positive impact on the overall ecosystem of Yellowstone we have seen bear’s feeding patterns skewed, as well as elk populations devastated. There is yet another animal within yellowstone that has been impacted in a negative way by humans. John P. Beckmann is a conservation scientist who conducted research with several other scientists on the harvesting of energy and natural resources near or in yellowstone. When conducting his research he noticed that the harvesting of energy resources near yellowstone was affecting the pronghorn population. A subclaim that I can derive from my research on this topic is that the harvesting of energy and natural resources makes it tough to keep humans out of the way of

While highly controversial, the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone Park has provided many beneficial ecological changes to the entire parks ecosystem. After a nearly 70 year absence, in January of 1995, 14 wolves from separate packs were captured in the Canadian Rockies and transported to Yellowstone National Park in the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho (Sanders par. 2).

Since the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone they have created an astounding and advantageous trophic cascade. A trophic cascade is an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain. These often result in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling. In a three-level food chain, an increase (or decrease) in carnivores causes a decrease (or increase) in herbivores and an increase (or decrease) in primary producers such as plants and phytoplankton according to briticanna (how to make better). The entire ecosystem was able to become whole again because the wolves, a key species, were reintroduced. Now this may seem weird, a predator comes into the area a begins to kill animals, how can this be beneficial in any way? Well the fact of the matter is that it is extremely beneficial. The reason being the problem in Yellowstone was the overpopulation of the elk. These elk had no predators, they were free to roam and reproduce, and they did this very well. Now elk are also a

Gauss’ Law states that no two organisms can occupy the same ecological niche without excluding the other, but what happens when man gets involved with nature and tries to introduce a species where it doesn’t belong which in turn provides a second organism to fill the same niche as the first? The results of human intervention have often been disastrous for the organism that we’re supposedly helping. Humans often times do not understand the complexity of the implications that are caused directly through our intervention. In 1974, the gray wolf was listed on the Endangered Species List, and in an effort to reestablish their populations, wolves were re-introduced into Yellowstone

Climate change will have a direct impact in the future of the park. Summer heat levels will become a norm that could be damaging to the Yellowstone environment. “All of natuires resources can be leveled with the astronomical amount of heat that will be produced based on climate change. the first evaluation of how climate change will affect the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, is a joint project of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a nonprofit that advocates for carbon emission reductions by drawing attention to the likely consequences of climate change, and the Greater

Say a frog eats a caterpillar, then a snake eats the frog, then finally a owl eats the snake. This is just a simple food chain but something called biodiversity, which means that’s there is a variety of things a that one animal can eat. An owl cant only eat a snake it could eat the frog or something smaller like a worm. This keeps form one species dying out completely, which would cause multiple species to die out. When someone releases a pet into the wild they are causing a disturbance into the wild habitat. When a python is released into a place full of crocodiles these two will start competing for food which would cause all of the lower species to start lowing in numbers faster until they become extinct which would then make the snakes and the crocodile die off too. If this keeps on happening the eventually every animal would die off!

I think the wolf reintroduction to yellowstone was a big sixes and i am all for the reaintrowduckshon into yellowstone nashenol parck.

While researching the gray wolf, I found out that it is actually a very touchy subject in Michigan. The hunting of Gray Wolves has been a very controversial topic. Gray wolves are native to Michigan but were nearly wiped out in the 19th and early 20th centuries by hunting and state-sanctioned bounties. In 1973, when Congress created the federal endangered species list, only six wolves were known to still exist in the Michigan wild, and gray wolves were considered an endangered species. By 2007, the wolf population in the Upper Peninsula topped 500 -- far exceeding the recovery benchmark of 100 set by the federal government, making the Great Lakes gray wolf one of the most successful recovery stories in the history of the endangered species list. The gray wolf actually came off the endangered species list in 2012, but as of December 2014, has been relisted.

Extinction: Most species become extinct because they can’t cope with the environmental change, and also because of introduced species that turned into competitors for

When herbivorous species such as white-tailed deer and elks are the main predators in a habitat, they create an imbalance in the habitat, and force other species in the habitat to go extinct. Natural predation also has a stronger impact in stabilizing or reducing the population of white-tailed deer than human hunting alone. One of the main reasons for the overpopulation of the deer was the extinction of their predators. Every animal in the food web is highly important in keeping the balance in the ecosystem. Yellowstone National Park was a great example of how every species support the

The area of Yellowstone National Park has a long history of inhabitants, even before it became the nation’s first national park. In the area now known as Yellowstone National Park, wolves were once very prominent. However due to westward expansion in the 1800s, agriculture began to increase. This led to the wolves that once thrived in this area to being practically completely removed. The increase in agriculture in this region led to a lot of the wolves’ prey becoming reduced or eliminated. Since the wolves had a decrease in prey, the wolves began to prey on domestic animals, which then resulted in humans eliminating the wolves almost completely. By the 1930s the wolf was eliminated from the area. This was before people had an understanding of how ecosystems work and the interrelation of species. Now that the wolves were gone, elk then became overpopulated. A lot of the vegetation began to disappear as well due to the overgrazing of the elk. However after about a 70-year absence, in 1995 the wolves were carefully brought back to Yellowstone. When they brought the wolves back to the park, there was not just an effect on one species or one area but rather they affected the entire ecosystem of the area. I will discuss their effects on areas such elk, beaver colonies, scavengers, aspen trees, willow trees and cottonwood trees.

According to the documentary, “How Wolves Change Rivers”, wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone National Park for about 70 years until being reintroduced in 1995. They were killed by hunters and tourists at first because it was legal, to the point where there was none left, even though they were so beneficial to the environment that they changed rivers from the effect that they changed populations of some animal species by hunting them. However, humans hunting would be able to do the same job as wolves, which is too hunt for a specific species to balance the ecosystem and, like the wolves, change rivers in the aspect that the forests which were regenerated would stabilize the banks of rivers. To add, some people would agree that removing wolves from Yellowstone National Park was a good idea to balance animal populations and keep animals away from specific areas of the park, but I disagree because I believe humans would be able to control these populations by hunting for the proper species according to the food chain. To paraphrase, in the documentary wolves killed deer because they overpopulated the ecosystem, leaving almost no vegetation. This hunting by the wolves had later affected the environment as the population of birds

Conservation: Yellowstone is extraordinarily large, with 290 waterfalls, 17 rivers and acreage spanning across portions of three states. According to Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk, his park “is at the heart of the largest intact ecosystem in the temperate zone in the United States, if not the world” (interview). It’s called the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) and within its borders lay two national parks (Grand Teton and Yellowstone), four national wildlife refuges, and seven national forests. This important biological reserve is the largest protected area in the lower 48 states and provides critical habitat for some of the world’s most iconic wildlife. Unfortunately, many plant and animal species today face endangerment, mainly because their natural habitats are being destroyed. National parks work to conserve wildlife by safeguarding these habitats that provide a safe space for wildlife to breed and survive.