Should the Wolves Stay in Yellowstone National Park?
National Parks are the cornerstone of every country because it preserves the rich cultural and natural resources of a nation, such as Yellowstone in the United States of America. Yellowstone National Park is the World’s First National Park which brings millions of attraction each year, it is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combine and have over a thousand species of plants and animal (Yellowstone Media). However, a very important type of species has been missing in Yellowstone National Park for a very long time. Wolves, which got reintroduce back into Yellowstone National Park, should stay there because without them the ecosystem would be out of balance.
Wolves had live throughout parts of the world for thousands of years before humans just kept rising in population and minimizing the wolves’ population through the expansion of their territories for farm agriculture and industrialization. It is only in the United States where humans completely annihilated wolves; they did this by hunting the wolves down until the last wolf was killed in 1926. However, in 1995, 14 wolves were caught from Canada and release into Yellowstone National Park. This makes it almost 70 years since the wolves have been reintroduced back into Yellowstone National Park (17 July 2009)
The wolves’ were hunted in late 1800 s’ and early 1900‘s in the United States because farmers wanted more land for their cattle’s to graze upon. As farmers were moving out west they felt threaten that the wolves would hunt their cattles so the farmers thought that the best solution would be to take them out of the picture. This was possible because at the time there were no government regulations on hunting....
... middle of paper ...
...leaving a little portion of land to the animals is not that bad. The reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone has been very beneficial to the ecosystem. We tried to eliminate this species but in the end, we need to ask ourselves the question, do we really need to eliminate another species based on our own biases and fears? We need to look past personal gain, and leave nature to take its course.
Works Cited
Yellowstone Science (2005): 3-5.
Bringing the Wolf Back to Yellowstone. July 14, 2009. .
Clash: Encounters of Bears and Wolves. PBS. n.d.
William J. Ripple, Robert L. Beschtaa. "Restoring Yellowstone's Aspen with Wolves." (September 2007): 514-519.
Wolves of Yellowstone. April 8, 2010. .
Yellowstone Media. 1997-2007. .
...I think that repopulating wolves in an area where they might have to deal with people is kind of a feeble-witted idea. Wolves are not an animal with a great reputation, even though they might not deserve that reputation most people do not like. I think that people as a whole would probably rather have deer in their back yard rather than wolves. Therefore, the questions what can happen, what should happen, and what will happen, with the deer problem all three have different answers. These answers will differ due to the area that the deer are in and the peoples' feeling towards these deer. It is too bad that there is not one perfect solution to the deer problem. Maybe in the future there will be, but until then we will have to deal with each problem that comes up individually.
1914 began the official war of the wolves. This year Congress officially approves funds for the eradication of wolves, cougars, and other destructive animals. Wolves were declared destructive to agricultural and big game interests and formally hunted. Nearly a century later, in 1995, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho's Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness(Phillips, 1996, p.20). The reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park did not end the debate of whether wolves should stay or go. Advocates for wolf reintroduction say the wolves control elk and deer population numbers; preventing the destruction of ranchers cattle and the land. Opponents say the wolves kill elk and deer that could be hunted. Ranchers fear the wolves will kill their livestock decreasing profits.
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 National Park, affecting Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho (Wyoming Wolf Management Plan, 2003). Between 1995 and 1996 thirty one wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone and thirty five wolves into central Idaho. The wolf numbers exploded, leaving these western states with the problem of what to do with these wolves to prevent them from exceeding their carrying capacity and where to go from here.
Early settlers, all the way back in the 1700s, tried to rid these marvelous creatures from the North American continent, which almost lead to their extinction. They poisoned, trapped, furred, shot and killed all the wolves that posed a threat to their lands and livestock. The settlers seemed to be getting their way in the beginning of the 1700s because as human population increased in America, unfortunately, the wolf population plummeted. They pushed the wolves out of their original habitats and the settlers made their habitats their home. The wolf population could have plummeted for many reasons, but the main reason was the fear the humans had of the wolves. Occasionally, the wolves would hunt in the fields where the settler’s livestock would graze and at the right time, the wolves would ambush the livestock for food. The wolves hunted the cattle because the horses were to much work to kill: the horses had strong hind legs that were a threat to the wolves. Farmers and Settlers also saw these wolves a...
The reintroduction of wolves into West Yellowstone National Park is detrimental to the quality of life in Yellowstone. Many people in the mainstream media have jumped on the “save the wolves” bandwagon, without knowing what the effect of the wolf on the ecosystem. It is a politically correct thing to be pro-wolf. Unfortunately the people who are making all the noise do not live in or around the park. They do not have their livelihood threatened by the wolf. They aren’t hunters, and so they don’t notice the decrease population of other animals that these large packs of wolves have diminished. The reintroduction of the Grey Wolf into West Yellowstone was devastating to the ecosystem because the wolf endangers the local wildlife, livestock, pets and even the local people’s children.
Human kind began hunting wolves at least 13,000 years ago when the wolf became a threat to their livestock. Over the past hundred years wolves were hunted for their pelts and also so that farmers could keep their livestock safe. What most extremist wolf supporters don’t know is that wolves were not an extinct species. There actually are 40-60 thousand wolves in North America. Within the lower 48 states of the U.S. the
Grey wolves were removed from USA’s Yellowstone National Park in 1926. A big impact of removing wolves were how the Aspen trees were slowly disappearing.After the wolves were gone beavers were scarce in the northern range, numbers of songbirds and habitats were reduced. The elk population skyrockets because the bears and the coyotes were left to hunt the elk but they do not kill as many elks as the wolves did. When the reintroduction of the wolves in 1995 there was a drastic difference in the landscape.
According the article “ Return of the Wolves”,are from Canada to the Yellowstone National Park. The were place on the endangered species list.
Domesticated cattle turned up in four percent of the samples (Reed et al., 2006). As Maehr explains in Large Mammal Restoration, their diet historically consisted of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). However, in a survey of prey killed by reintroduced Mexican gray wolves in 1999, 85 % of the ungulates preyed upon consisted of elk. Of those 85 percent elk, 53 percent included calves, indicating they primarily preyed upon weaker, slower individuals (Brown & Parsons, 2001). Other ungulates and small mammals comprised the remainder of their diet when their primary prey remained unavailable. Mexican gray wolves typically hunt in packs cooperatively to bring down larger prey. Many Mexican gray wolves chase their prey for long distances, but this remains largely dependent on the terrain and target prey species (USFWS, 2014b). Pack sizes typically range from three to eight wolves, although the reintroduction of a subspecies in Yellowstone National Park calculated over ten wolves per pack (AZGFD, 2004). Their packs generally consist of an alpha male, his breeding partner, and their offspring. Often times, more than one generation of offspring stays with the pack until they reach sexual maturity (USFWS,
To begin with, in 1995 the Gray Wolf was introduced back into Yellowstone National Park. This made the park’s ecosystem form back to it’s regular balance of the ecosystem. The balance of the ecosystem goes producer, herbivore, then carnivore. This is called the food chain and with the Gray Wolf back on top of the food chain it will help the ecosystem's balance. “Loned dispersed wolves have traveled as far as 600 miles in search of a new home”. This means that it can take a Gray Wolf up to 600 miles to find a new home. A very long walk. Also wolves can travel as far as 30 miles to areas that they can hunt in. The Gray Wolf strongly resembles the German Shepherd in many ways. One example of similarity is that the Gray Wolf and the German Shepherd
Wolves have a life, that helps humans. Don’t take it. To begin with, wolves help keep prey under control. Also, the more wolves that people kill, the more livestock that wolves will kill. To conclude, they have positive effects on the environment. To summarize, there are many reasons why people shouldn’t kill wolves, these are only a few!
Wolves live in many areas around the world. Without wolves overpopulation would happen and there would be
Should the gray wolf continue to be reintroduced into US parks like Yellowstone National Park? If so, then should they be protected? The gray wolf or (timber wolf as some people say) is a very noble animal and in nineteen ninety five they were released back into US parks (Gray Wolf Conservation). Now the wolf population both inside and outside the parks continues to grow and there are concerns about the impact that they may have on both the domestic and nondomestic animals that are their normal prey. Those concerned are mostly farmers and ranchers- the same groups of people who hunted the timber wolves almost to extinction. Their concerns may not be totally unfounded but they are certainly overstated and wolves should continue
The wolves do good things for yellowstone. They bring in a extra $23 million dollars into yellow that they can use to expand and get more
Grey wolves are a crucial staple to the trophic system in Yellowstone National Park. Trophic systems are comprised of three levels, pray, predator, and plants. In 1920, the entire population of grey wolves were killed off in Yellowstone national park, which launched the avalanche of change in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Some of the changes that occurred during the almost seven decade wolf absence, included a significant population increase of elk, population decrease of beaver, and decreased coverage of tree’s within Yellowstone. (YNP) The killing and disappearance of they wolves caused a ripple of direct and indirect ramifications throughout the entirety of the ecosystem. Grey wolves were nonexistent in Yellowstone national park until the mid 1990’s, where early stages