Physical Description: Ursus Arctos (or Brown Bear) is among the largest and most powerful of all land carnivores. They range from 91-153cm (3-5 feet) tall on all fours and range from 183-274cm (6-9 feet) while standing upright. The average weight of the Brown Bear depends on gender and its access to a consistent food source. An interior male Brown Bear averages around 247 kg (550lbs), while the female averages around 157 kg (350lbs). However, Brown Bears that live along the coast and have access to a more protein enriched diet can weigh up to 680kgs (1500lbs). The fur is usually dark brown, but can vary from black to light blonde and in very rare cases, white. Some Brown Bears located in the Rocky Mountains have long hairs along the shoulders and back with a frosted white look, which leads to the common name “grizzly bear”.
The ecology, or how living organism interact with their environment, starts from the top, or the predator and goes down to the soil and streams. Before the wolf was introduced to the Yellowstone National Park, elk populations have grown too large for the land to sustain them. Due to the large number of elk eating the grass and trees, the grass has been eaten, and the soil has become loose due to the lack of grass to hold the soil in place (Hannibal 2012). The exposed soil makes the land more susceptible to changes in the weather (Hannibal 2012). When wolves were reintroduced into the Yellowstone National Park, the willow trees grew back, the Aspens grew more abundantly, and the grass managed to regrow(“In the Valley of the Wolves”). The elk still ate the grass, willows, and trees; however because the wolves were now preying on the elk the elk had to keep moving and stay in areas wher...
First, I chose a grizzly bear because I am more familiar with it and would like to learn more about them.This animal is big,brown,and furry.
To understand why wolves should inhabit the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), we must first look to history. As Douglas Smith et al say, “The history of wolves in North America and the west is straightforward: we killed them” (108). This statement may sound simplified, but actual wolf extermination was thoughtless and thorough. Many wolves were removed from regions where they weren’t even threats to humans or livestock (Klinghammer 446) because wolves, like grizzlies, were perceived as competitors for land and food. Unlike grizzly bears, wolves didn’t survive in the Northern Rocky Mountains because of poisonings, shootings, and bounties for their pelts (Barker 177). These actions caused the extinction of wolves in western states, changing the ecosystems by eliminating a natural predator.
* Perhaps the most noticeable and striking characteristics of a polar bear is its color. The fur shafts themselves are not white. The shafts actually lack pigmentation and are transparent which allows them to scatter and reflect light resulting in ideal camouflage in a world of ice and snow.
...act, a fraction of the wild animal population is specially directed to be killed. Because of this hunting actually causes overpopulation and ecological disturbance. While hunters believe they control the populations of the animals they kill, natural predators, wolves, bears, and mountain lions , are the actual ecosystem managers, if they too are not hunted.
Male Black Bears travel over many miles, sometimes living in an area as large as 60 square miles. Females do not roam as much and live in areas around 15 square miles. Male Bears do not live in the same areas as other males, but many females may live in the same areas. Females are more likely to defend their territory than a male is when an intruder is to enter. These animals determine their territory “by urinating, defecating, and by scratching, rubbing, and biting trees.” (State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 2014) Most people think that bears live in caves, but bears lives in different places and make their dens out of different things. The dens may be in “open nest, brush piles, fallen trees, rock piles, excavations, hollow trees, and human structures.” (Ternant, 2006)
In this research paper, I will address the changes that occurred within the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park since the reintroduction of the grey wolves. The paper will consist of four sections; the first section will include the history behind the extirpation and subsequent reintroduction of the gray wolf in Northern America. The second section will explore the political controversy that surrounds the reintroduction of the gray wolf in Yellowstone. The third section will contain discuss the gray wolf and its impact on the ecosystem of Yellowstone. I will conclude my essay by explaining how the gray wolves act as climate change buffers in Yellowstone amidst global warming.
Although the grizzly is on the California flag, it is an organism that is nowhere to be found in the state. The last one is actually in San Francisco, surrounded by a tinted glass case at the Academy of Sciences. After Hearst captured Monarch in 1889, he kept the bear for 22 years in a cage to preserve the animal prone to extinction. The California Grizzly was given its uniqueness after the death of Monarch. His death displayed the importance and impact of what mankind is capable of.
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.