Nature Minute Road Trip- Wolves of Yellowstone

Predators are an essential part of a healthy ecosystem. Owls and snakes might be patrolling your neighborhood, keeping the rodent population in check and out of your house. Birds and bats target pest insects. Top-level predators, the large killing machines, are equally important but have suffered from human ignorance. To demonstrate the importance of top-level predators, enjoy the story of the gray wolf and how its return impacted life in and around Yellowstone National Park. This is the first story from the Nature Minute Road Trip. 

Wolves were extirpated (made locally extinct) from Yellowstone in the 1930s. They were a menace to neighboring ranches’ livestock and preying on the park’s more charismatic wildlife like bison and elk. Mind you, this took place before the National Park Service placed much emphasis on the “preservation” part of its mission and focused more on the “enjoyment” part. This was a time of public bear feedings.

Gray wolf (in captivity)

By the time 1995 came around, the elk population had gotten out of hand. After much deliberation, a wolf pack from Canada was transported to Yellowstone. The wolves were carefully selected to ensure that their preferred prey was elk, since that was the target species for culling. Yes, different wolves prefer different prey, but they will switch depending on availability.

Elk

The wolves were placed in kennels to quarantine them and let them acclimate to their new surroundings before being released into the wild. Contact with rangers and biologists was limited so they wouldn’t get used to being around people. After release, the fun began.

With large predators on the loose again, the elk had to adapt. They began spending less time in open areas. Lower elk numbers combined with elk lifestyle changes led to young trees growing. Previously, the elk had eaten nearly all new trees before they had a chance to reach maturity. With new trees like willows growing in the river bottoms, beavers began migrating back to Yellowstone. The new trees, even newer beaver ponds, and lower coyote populations (out competed for food by the larger wolves) brought in a host of birds and small mammals that had left. With the birds came smaller predators like foxes and hawks. 

Wolf being released at Yellowstone (NPS photo)

The leftovers from wolf kills attracted more corvids (ravens, crows, and magpies) and benefited eagles (bald and golden) as well as bears (black and grizzly). The absence of elk in the river bottoms and the emergence of trees there changed the course of rivers by stabilizing the banks. This was a two-fold move. The elk were eroding the banks with their constant trampling and the trees added stability by holding soils and rocks in place.

The wolf reintroduction was not without its critics, people we will call lupophobes for their fear of the wolf. People to this day still deny that the wolf reintroduction has done any benefit for the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Science hasn’t proven that all these changes are caused directly by the wolf’s presence, but it does prove that the benefits took place after. You decide. I'd been to Yellowstone before the return of the wolf, but I barely remembered any of it, let alone enough to do a before and after comparison.

This week's wolf information and picture come from the National Park Service.