The Pros And Cons Of Wolves

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.

On May 3, 1995 female wolf number nine gave birth to eight puppies, the first wolves to be born in the park in nearly 70 years. The mother and pups were recaptured and taken back to the acclimation pen, until the pups were weaned (Sanders par. 15). The reason for this recapture was because at this time, this wolf and her eight pups counted for almost 50% of the park’s wolf population. Since this time there have been no other human interventions preferring to let nature take its course on the population.

Recently I watched a news article on the reintroduction of wolves to Scotland. This sparked my interest because I felt there was a large misconception about what they eat, why they kill it and how dangerous they are to people. It seems that it could have a vast impact on the environment the questions are: Should large predators such as the wolf be re-introduced into the wild? And is it truly safe?

The red wolves are an endangered species. Right now they are only 45-60 left the wild. If people don't do something soon they might become completely extinct.

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

George, J. C., & Minor, W. (2008). The wolves are back. New York, NY: Dutton Children's Books. The Wolves are Back is a wonderful children’s picture book.

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

So as you can see the best solution for tourists, farmers, the ecosystem, and the wolves is to let us keep the wolves in the wild where they belong and not in some sanctioned area where no unauthorized people are allowed to even gaze upon these marvelous

Wolves are just trying to survive and help their young survive just like how humans want to survive and help their young survive. The issues they are facing are mostly human causes, we need to stop killing and hunting wolves for prizes and for useless reasons, and start respecting them. Wolves are very important to nature and first nations and everyone in general. Dont you want your kids to grow up knowing what wolves are. Do you want you kids growing up their parents generation killed off wolves, no you dont. Lets stop wolves from getting

In 1924 because of a “government policy the federal government deliberately killed all the wolf packs” in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. This policy was passed because of the lack of knowledge and fear. These animals have been a scapegoat throughout human history. But what happens when we take a large predatory animal out of the ecosystem; when we keep the big bad wolf from doing its part in the environment.

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.

The cause of the local big game population dropping isn’t because animals are not reproducing. It is because wolves are killing too many big game animals and killing the ecosystem of the North Western United States. The population of Mule Deer in SouthEastern Idaho was cut in half in only 8 years, from 1995 to 2003 (IFG, 2006). What caused this sudden decline? Wolves did. Deer are not the only species suffering. Elk populations are seriously struggling to keep their numbers up. Wolves are killing them too fast and elk cannot keep up.

Another challenge to the long-term survival of the NRM gray wolf is its persistent widespread public persecution. Many public landowners, namely ranchers, cite the gray wolf as being the primary cause for livestock population declines. According to the USFWS, throughout a period between 1995 and 2008, gray wolves were directly involved with the deaths of 3242 livestock (cattle and sheep) animals in the northern Rocky Mountain states. During the thirteen year span, there were 988 confirmed wolf kills in the region (USFWS n.d.). Many ranchers in the Yellowstone region assert that, even though they receive government compensation for lost livestock, they spend too much time and effort in raising livestock that perish as a result of wolf depredation.

In the first scenario wolf pack are able to hunt reindeers easily, because there are less wolf packs competing for a limited number of resources. This would mean that the wolf pack would use less energy in hunting by using ambush tactics that require more time and are usually less effective than the traditional hunting methods, but it would offset this with an economic gain in terms of calories. Another reason might be just the fact that prey is more readily available and wolves have the opportunity to hunt more. Both scenarios produce an economic benefit for the wolves because they are going to acquire more calories than they spent. The described situation is not a perfect competition. However, as previously mentioned other wolf packs can enter the valley without any restriction and they are going to seize this arbitrage opportunity until there is no economic profit and the cost of hunting equals its benefits. The behavior of the wolf packs will be the same in the perfect competition market and there will be no readjustment.

Much of the threats against wolves comes from conflict with humans due to the rarity of wild prey, genetic isolation and habitat loss. Wild ungulates are in low density or completely absent in many areas of the Iberian Peninsula. To combat this, there have been efforts to reintroduce roe deer to areas of Portugal, providing a wild prey source for the wolves (Cruz et al., 2014). Studies suggest that having a higher density and diversity of wild ungulates decreases livestock predation (Meriggi and Lovari, 1996). Whilst reintroduction of wild prey holds promise in the long-term, it is not immediately effective as the ungulate population will need to replenish itself. With no wild ungulates, wolves will continue to feed on livestock. Livestock is often free ranging and unguarded, making them an easy target for wolves. Farmers then retaliate against the wolves: in one study of 80 dead wolves, 38% died either from shooting, poaching or poisoning (Barroso and Pimenta, 2008), and it was also noted the actual number could be higher due to the difficulty of determining whether a wolf has been poisoned (Torres and Fonseca, 2016). In areas where wolves prey mainly on wild ungulates, there were no reported wolf deaths by poison, however in locations where livestock was the main prey source, poison was the leading cause of death in wolves (Álvares, 2003). Farmers who experience livestock loss