Predation: Reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone As a Biology 1A student, there are many interesting and complied topics to understand. Just like an ecosystem and the factors that contribute to maintaining the ecosystem. An ecosystem is a community of individuals in a certain area where they all interact with each other and the environment. There are two types of ecosystem terrestrial and aquatic, and the sub-ecosystems fall into one of these two choices. One of the factors that contribute a major role in any kind of ecosystem would be predation. Predation is the interaction between two organisms where the predator feeds off the prey. Where the prey is the one being hunted, and the predator is the one hunting. For example, three examples …show more content…
In an environment with few trees and grass, how is it able to maintain such a large population? It's thanks to the lions and other predators. The lion helps the number of grazers to decrease and provides the environment with time so that it can regenerate. In doing so, the environment is able to support the population. The second example of predation at play is birds and insects. They inhabit a territorial ecosystem, but as for sub-ecosystems it possesses many since birds and insects can be found anywhere. Birds provide a major help to every terrestrial ecosystem because they help prevent plagues. Insects are able to reproduce in massive numbers, and without a predator they could affect the environment. Which can be devastating for surrounding organisms, and animal's that inhabit the same area. The third example of predation at play is the hares and lynx. They inhabit a snowy forest ecosystem (or also know as taiga). The taiga is known for it's below zero temperature and conifers. During the winter, there is very little food available to predators, and they depend mainly on one source of food. The lynx's main source of food during the winter is the hare. The relationship between preys and predators can
Gray Wolf Optimization Gray wolf optimization is presented in the following subsections based on the work in [13]. 1) Inspiration: Grey wolves are considered as apex predators, meaning that they are at the top of the food chain. Grey wolves mostly prefer to live in a pack. The group size is 512 on average. They have a very strict social dominant hierarchy.
The climate in the Taiga make finding food and life in general difficult so in the winter animals migrate, hibernate or just cope with the harsh climate. Most of the main birds are non threatened like the bohemian waxwing, pine grosbeak, red throated loon and the hawk owl. The bohemian waxwing eats mostly fruit, and make thick nests in tall conifers unlike the hawk owl which nests in hollow tree stumps or abandoned nests and eats small mammals which it hunts in the day. The pine grosbeak nests in mostly conifers with diet of seeds and the red throated loon has a diet of fish because it spends most of its time on the water. Mammals include the ermine; a weasel like animal in which it...
According to Karl N. Llewellyn and E. Adamson Hoebel, making new laws in our societies helps us to become more discipline and safe and it also prevents us from crimes such as rape, sexual assault or harassment, violent crime fraud, robbery, murder etc due to a larger society which Hoebel called “heterogeneous”. Many people in the modern society can not make their own decisions without hearing or listening to the people in power such as the government (legislatures), police, lawyers/ judges. Just like the “Cheyenne community”, the community they come to together to solve conflicts between individuals by involving individuals or the community as a whole for the protection of themselves.
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.
Predation could limit the prey distribution and decrease abundance. Such limitation may be desirable in the case of pest species, or undesirable to some individuals as with game animals or endangered species. Predation may also act as a major selective force. The effects of predator prey coevolution can explain many evolutionary adaptations in both predator and prey species. The effects of wolf predation on species of large ungulates have proven to be controversial and elusive.
The characteristics of the grizzly bear as a top predator also make it highly vulnerable to threats. Although it is an omnivore, because it relies heavily on salmon to make it through the winter, it is vulnerable to anything that impacts on salmon runs. It needs wide-ranging habitat and is slow to reproduce. As such, grizzly bears are considered not just a key species but also an ‘umbrella species’ because the protection of their habitats will result in an ‘umbrella of protection’ for a wide range of other species. The protected areas that have been set aside in the Great Bear Rainforest are not enough to sustain healthy populations of grizzly bear so it requires additional habitat set aside from logging. Trophy hunting of grizzly bears also continues to place their population at
Mader,T.R. Wolf reintroduction in the Yellowstone National Park: a historical perspective. Common Man Institute. 1998. 26 pgs.
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...
Most people will never see a grey wolf but they live in many different kinds of places. A grey wolf’s range covers most of North America. Grey Wolves got their name because they have thick grey fur. Wolves prefer to eat animals with hooves and smaller animals like muskrats. The grey wolf is a fascinating creature to study.
People today use hunting as a sport. Of course, not everyone agrees with hunting, but those who like to hunt justify their actions by saying that they are helping with the overpopulation of animals, like deer. The truth is that we are affecting the population of animals. Animal overpopulation can be due to the loss of an animal’s natural predator. Predators are extremely important in an ecosystem, and they are nature’s way of controlling the animal population. In William Stolzenburg’s book, Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators, he addresses the importance of predators in an ecosystem. He discusses an experiment done by a zoologist named Robert T. Paine. Paine decided to do an experiment to see what happens when one disrupts an ecosystem. He conducted his experiment on rocks along the shore in which a species of starfish was the top predator. Paine’s experiment consisted of grabbing the starfish off the rocks and throwing them into the ocean. His results showed that one single species has a tremendous effect on its ecosystem. After getting rid of the top predator, about half of the species that
The wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park improved the park’s ecosystem greatly! An example of this can be found in the article “In the Valley of the Wolves,” which states “Now, nearly a dozen years since the wolves returned, the recovery of that same system to its natural balance is well underway, says ecologists William Ripple and Robert Bescheta of Oregon State University” (“In the Valley”). The article explains that the ecosystem has started to recover and is continuing to recover because of the wolf reintroduction. Another example is from “In the Valley of the Wolves,” “… wolves affect elk; elk affect aspen; and therefore wolves affect aspen” (In the Valley”). In other words, if there were no wolves to eat the elk, there would be more elk eating the aspen, and aspen is a huge factor in Yellowstone’s ecosystem. Without the gray wolf, Yellowstone’s ecosystem might function, but not to the best of its abilities.
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.
Studies show that wolves play a significant role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, and could even help stave off some of the effects of climate change. They help keep large animal herd populations in check, which can benefit numerous other plan...
One of the big causes of extinction or the endangerment of species is foreign species entering a habitat. This species that are not native to the land can disrupt the food web in that community. These species take control of the food web and endanger some of the other species. The native species become endangered and over the course of many years they either adapt to their new way or life, the foreign predator leaves or is killed off due to the different environment, or the species is killed off and becomes extinct. Organizations like the “World Wild Li...
As biological Controls – *Birds are very helpful in controlling injurious crop pests. *There are a wide variety of insect eating birds. *Sparrow generally eat seeds of noxious weeds. *Birds of prey such as hawks, eagles and owls kill rodents, hare and ground squirrels etc which destroys the crops. *Birds can destroy up to 98% of over-wintering codling moth larvae, a major pest of apples worldwide. *No doubt, in the absence ofbirds, many of these insects may become even greater pests, destroying our agricultural and forestry crops. As key stone species –*Some birds are considered keystone species as their presence in (or disappearance from) an ecosystem affects other species indirectly. *For example, woodpeckers create cavities that are then used by many other species. *After the extinction of the dodo, it was discovered that a tree whose fruits had been a primary food item of the dodo was unable to reproduce without its seeds passing through the dodos’ digestive tracts, which process scarified the seed coat and enabled