photo by Marcel Huijser
The Reintroduction of Wolves in Yellowstone
Introduction
"Owooooo." The sound of a wolf howl chills the bones of some and puts a smile in the face of many others.
The reintroduction of the wolf is one of "the most controversial wildlife project[s] of the century" (20th Anniversary of Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Observed) because there is such a difference of opinion over the wolf itself. Fear and misunderstandings lead to most of the negative thoughts on wolves, and it is the purpose of this investigation to acknowledge those fears, but also show that, according to recent scientific research and data, these views are misplaced. It is the hope that this information will change people's views and return the perception of the wolf to its rightful place as a majestic creatures vital to a balanced ecosystem.
The reintroduction of the wolf is one of "the most controversial wildlife project[s] of the century" (20th Anniversary of Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Observed) because there is such a difference of opinion over the wolf itself. Fear and misunderstandings lead to most of the negative thoughts on wolves, and it is the purpose of this investigation to acknowledge those fears, but also show that, according to recent scientific research and data, these views are misplaced. It is the hope that this information will change people's views and return the perception of the wolf to its rightful place as a majestic creatures vital to a balanced ecosystem.
Three Views
Montana rancher Chip Watts’ opinion was incredibly informative because usually people feel two ways about wolves, they love them or they hate them. What was interesting was that Chip was fine with wolves being reintroduced to Yellowstone, as long as the wolves stayed in the national park. Yet the wolves didn’t stay in the park like the biologists and park rangers said, because some people just shot a wolf a couple of miles from his ranch. The reason why Chip didn’t like wolves roaming free is that they might attack his livestock, and if they do he has no way to defend them because it is illegal to shoot wolves. Building on that, he said that ‘some of his horses are better friends to him then his neighbors’, and if a wolf is going to kill them for food then he won’t hesitate to shoot the wolf. Chip’s last thought on wolf reintroduction was that ‘the east wants the west to be their zoo’. What he meant was that the first people who eradicated the wolves were the people from the east. Now the ‘easterners’ want the wolves reintroduced just to the west and not in the east where the wolves also lived, but what Chip thinks is that if you want to have the wolves back, bring them back to the east first! In other words, what he wants is for the east to fix their own ‘house’ before they fix ‘our house’. It is clear that Chip’s strong spirit of independence shapes his ideas on how the wolf reintroduction should have gone.
Brad Grein, a resident of Big Sky, a hunter and a lover of nature, had different views about the reintroduction of wolves. Brad described that the wolves that were eradicated in the west were timber wolves, but then, when the wolves were reintroduced, a corrupt group of biologists and government officials introduced gray wolves. Timberwolves, Brad explained, are smaller than gray wolves, so they eat less, but when the gray wolves were introduced they started killing all of the elk, decreasing the elk numbers drastically. Brad also said that the biologists stated that the wolves would kill the bison and decrease their numbers, but that they secretly knew that the wolves would kill the elk. The biologists and conservationists did this because they didn’t like the fact that people hunt elk and introduced the gray wolves to make the elk’s population smaller so there would be less hunting. Even worse is the fact that the gray wolves kill for the sport of it! Brad said one time when he was out hunting there was a pack of gray wolves that ‘killed 15 elk and then just left’. In short, Brad Grein’s hunting beliefs influenced his views on the reintroduction of the gray wolf, and made him upset that the conservationists unethically introduced the wrong wolf.
The third and final perspective is from George Monbiot, a conservationist who talks about wolves, and how they changed the ecosystem for the better. His views are best summed up by his following quote, “We are all aware that wolves kill various species of animals, but perhaps were slightly less aware that they give life to many others” (How Wolves Change Rivers). Wolves had not been in Yellowstone for over seventy years, so there were hardly any predators hunting the elk. Therefore the elk began to overpopulate Yellowstone National Park which meant that the elk overgrazed much of the landscape, and trees, grasses and other plants found it extremely hard to survive. All of that was a huge problem, but when the wolves arrived the elk changed their grazing patterns avoiding the valleys and the places that they could not easily escape from a hungry wolf pack. The valleys rapidly regrew, and became flourishing grasslands and forests, which allowed the birds to come back. The overall benefits of the reintroduction of the wolves is spectacular, because the wolves allowed other animals to come back such as beavers. Just like the wolves, beavers are keystone species, which means if they are prominent they will allow other animals to survive and flourish such as otters, fish, and ducks. There are also many other positive examples, for instance when a wolf leaves a dead animal, other animas can come and eat it, so the scavenging animals also grow in number.
While Monbiot’s examples are exciting, his best evidence is how the wolves changed the rivers! Before the wolves were reintroduced the elk grazed the banks of the rivers so much that they ended up bare, and if you have bare banks, the soil is much looser so it erodes. When the wolves were reintroduced, the elk didn’t overgraze the banks of the rivers so trees started to grow and strengthen the banks of the river. The sturdier banks made it so the rivers when on a more distinct course and eroded the riverside less. With this revealing evidence from his TED talk, George Monbiot hopes to influence the rest of the world’s view on the wolf reintroduction project.
Wolf Reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park
By the end of the 1930s, the wolves that used to roam the park in the late 1800s were eradicated. Over the course of the next 40 years, there was a slow change in people’s views on what is natural and whether we should have predators. The first major movement was the Endangered Species Act which was designed “to protect declining species from the shortsightedness of man… [and, importantly,] the gray wolf was added to the list” (20 Years of Wolves Back in Yellowstone). Around 1980 people were slowly realizing that a Yellowstone without wolves is not a healthy Yellowstone, because elk were over grazing and the ecosystem was unbalanced.
In 1995 scientists brought eight live trapped wolves from Canada into Yellowstone and two other places. Even though the wolves were put into ‘holding pens’, scientists were afraid that the wolves would just head back up into Canada. Just as the scientists feared, soon after the wolves were released, #10 and his mate headed back to Canada. Sadly, on the way, #10 was shot illegally but his mate #9 with her eight pups managed to get rescued and brought back into the park. To the scientist’s joy, #9 stayed in the park and most of the wolves in Yellowstone today are her descendants.
During the last twenty years, scientists noticed that wolves created a beneficial change in the ecosystem allowing erosion around the rivers to stop and trees and grasses to grow. This concept is called a ‘trophic cascade’ and biologist Doug Smith described it by saying that “it’s like kicking a pebble down a mountain slope where the conditions are just right that a falling pebble could trigger an avalanche of change” (Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem). This accurately describes the wolfs’ impact on Yellowstone as the wolves stopped elk from overgrazing, brought back a healthy ecosystem and even ‘changed the course of rivers’ (Monbiot).
Even though Yellowstone has had such great success, people’s fear of wolves haven’t totally changed. As always, there are two different opinions on wolf reintroduction which includes that wolves either saved Yellowstone or that wolves kill for pleasure and are dangerous to humans. A unfortunate consequence that stems from the negative thoughts on wolves is trapping. Trapping was outlawed decades ago, because it kills so many animals, but now some states such as Montana and Idaho have recently legalized the practice of it. Trapping is an unethical practice because not only does it trap the animal’s leg and hold it there until they die of pain, fatigue or blood loss, but also it does not just kill wolves, but kills birds of prey and almost any unlucky animal that comes across it. As horrific as these laws are, twenty years of research on wolves in Yellowstone has shown the wider public that wolves are a necessary predator and a keystone species for the Yellowstone ecosystem. Even though some people have not changed their perceptions, the overall fear of wolves is diminishing and people are starting to accept wolves into the environment.
Final Assessment
The reintroduction of wolves was one of the best conservationist programs that have been done in the past few decades. Their are so many reason why it is an over-whelming success and all of the perspectives that are negative towards the reintroduction of wolves can be countered. Even though Chip Watts stated that the conservationist’s promised that they would keep the wolves in Yellowstone National Park, Doug Smith was clear that they never promised that, and then stated that the main killers of livestock are not wolves (Q & A: Wolves). This is supported by an article from the Flathead Beacon in which Bret French states that “out of 1.7 million cattle deaths [in 2010], only 2.3 percent were caused by predators … [and] nationwide between 1991 and 2005, coyotes, dogs and mountain lions were the main killers of cattle” (20th Anniversary of Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Observed). Furthermore, Doug Smith again explains that wolf subspecies are so genetically similar that there is hardly a difference between the wolves that used to live in Yellowstone and the wolves that were reintroduced, and explains how wolves don’t kill for sport (Q & A: Wolves). Interestingly, in contrast to the statistics and research, both Chip Watts and Brad Grein’ arguments are based on the old belief of the wolves’ “mythical status as bloodthirsty, wasteful killers” (20th Anniversary of Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Observed). Hopefully, this old belief will fully disappear as the scientific data reveals the truth about wolves, for while everyone has their own perspectives based upon their personal experiences, the only way to get to the truth is by spreading the word of scientific evidence and research. By doing that, slowly and steadily people’s perspectives will change. Over a hundred years ago people like John Muir fought to protect the beauty of the west. Today, it is our job to continue and reinforce their legacy so that future generations will have a better world in which to live, and wolf reintroduction is a successful example of our ability to restore wild ecosystems, for as Doug Smith, leader of the wolf reintroduction project, stated, “you need to have the natural predators” (Q & A: Wolves).
Montana rancher Chip Watts’ opinion was incredibly informative because usually people feel two ways about wolves, they love them or they hate them. What was interesting was that Chip was fine with wolves being reintroduced to Yellowstone, as long as the wolves stayed in the national park. Yet the wolves didn’t stay in the park like the biologists and park rangers said, because some people just shot a wolf a couple of miles from his ranch. The reason why Chip didn’t like wolves roaming free is that they might attack his livestock, and if they do he has no way to defend them because it is illegal to shoot wolves. Building on that, he said that ‘some of his horses are better friends to him then his neighbors’, and if a wolf is going to kill them for food then he won’t hesitate to shoot the wolf. Chip’s last thought on wolf reintroduction was that ‘the east wants the west to be their zoo’. What he meant was that the first people who eradicated the wolves were the people from the east. Now the ‘easterners’ want the wolves reintroduced just to the west and not in the east where the wolves also lived, but what Chip thinks is that if you want to have the wolves back, bring them back to the east first! In other words, what he wants is for the east to fix their own ‘house’ before they fix ‘our house’. It is clear that Chip’s strong spirit of independence shapes his ideas on how the wolf reintroduction should have gone.
Brad Grein, a resident of Big Sky, a hunter and a lover of nature, had different views about the reintroduction of wolves. Brad described that the wolves that were eradicated in the west were timber wolves, but then, when the wolves were reintroduced, a corrupt group of biologists and government officials introduced gray wolves. Timberwolves, Brad explained, are smaller than gray wolves, so they eat less, but when the gray wolves were introduced they started killing all of the elk, decreasing the elk numbers drastically. Brad also said that the biologists stated that the wolves would kill the bison and decrease their numbers, but that they secretly knew that the wolves would kill the elk. The biologists and conservationists did this because they didn’t like the fact that people hunt elk and introduced the gray wolves to make the elk’s population smaller so there would be less hunting. Even worse is the fact that the gray wolves kill for the sport of it! Brad said one time when he was out hunting there was a pack of gray wolves that ‘killed 15 elk and then just left’. In short, Brad Grein’s hunting beliefs influenced his views on the reintroduction of the gray wolf, and made him upset that the conservationists unethically introduced the wrong wolf.
The third and final perspective is from George Monbiot, a conservationist who talks about wolves, and how they changed the ecosystem for the better. His views are best summed up by his following quote, “We are all aware that wolves kill various species of animals, but perhaps were slightly less aware that they give life to many others” (How Wolves Change Rivers). Wolves had not been in Yellowstone for over seventy years, so there were hardly any predators hunting the elk. Therefore the elk began to overpopulate Yellowstone National Park which meant that the elk overgrazed much of the landscape, and trees, grasses and other plants found it extremely hard to survive. All of that was a huge problem, but when the wolves arrived the elk changed their grazing patterns avoiding the valleys and the places that they could not easily escape from a hungry wolf pack. The valleys rapidly regrew, and became flourishing grasslands and forests, which allowed the birds to come back. The overall benefits of the reintroduction of the wolves is spectacular, because the wolves allowed other animals to come back such as beavers. Just like the wolves, beavers are keystone species, which means if they are prominent they will allow other animals to survive and flourish such as otters, fish, and ducks. There are also many other positive examples, for instance when a wolf leaves a dead animal, other animas can come and eat it, so the scavenging animals also grow in number.
While Monbiot’s examples are exciting, his best evidence is how the wolves changed the rivers! Before the wolves were reintroduced the elk grazed the banks of the rivers so much that they ended up bare, and if you have bare banks, the soil is much looser so it erodes. When the wolves were reintroduced, the elk didn’t overgraze the banks of the rivers so trees started to grow and strengthen the banks of the river. The sturdier banks made it so the rivers when on a more distinct course and eroded the riverside less. With this revealing evidence from his TED talk, George Monbiot hopes to influence the rest of the world’s view on the wolf reintroduction project.
Wolf Reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park
By the end of the 1930s, the wolves that used to roam the park in the late 1800s were eradicated. Over the course of the next 40 years, there was a slow change in people’s views on what is natural and whether we should have predators. The first major movement was the Endangered Species Act which was designed “to protect declining species from the shortsightedness of man… [and, importantly,] the gray wolf was added to the list” (20 Years of Wolves Back in Yellowstone). Around 1980 people were slowly realizing that a Yellowstone without wolves is not a healthy Yellowstone, because elk were over grazing and the ecosystem was unbalanced.
In 1995 scientists brought eight live trapped wolves from Canada into Yellowstone and two other places. Even though the wolves were put into ‘holding pens’, scientists were afraid that the wolves would just head back up into Canada. Just as the scientists feared, soon after the wolves were released, #10 and his mate headed back to Canada. Sadly, on the way, #10 was shot illegally but his mate #9 with her eight pups managed to get rescued and brought back into the park. To the scientist’s joy, #9 stayed in the park and most of the wolves in Yellowstone today are her descendants.
During the last twenty years, scientists noticed that wolves created a beneficial change in the ecosystem allowing erosion around the rivers to stop and trees and grasses to grow. This concept is called a ‘trophic cascade’ and biologist Doug Smith described it by saying that “it’s like kicking a pebble down a mountain slope where the conditions are just right that a falling pebble could trigger an avalanche of change” (Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem). This accurately describes the wolfs’ impact on Yellowstone as the wolves stopped elk from overgrazing, brought back a healthy ecosystem and even ‘changed the course of rivers’ (Monbiot).
Even though Yellowstone has had such great success, people’s fear of wolves haven’t totally changed. As always, there are two different opinions on wolf reintroduction which includes that wolves either saved Yellowstone or that wolves kill for pleasure and are dangerous to humans. A unfortunate consequence that stems from the negative thoughts on wolves is trapping. Trapping was outlawed decades ago, because it kills so many animals, but now some states such as Montana and Idaho have recently legalized the practice of it. Trapping is an unethical practice because not only does it trap the animal’s leg and hold it there until they die of pain, fatigue or blood loss, but also it does not just kill wolves, but kills birds of prey and almost any unlucky animal that comes across it. As horrific as these laws are, twenty years of research on wolves in Yellowstone has shown the wider public that wolves are a necessary predator and a keystone species for the Yellowstone ecosystem. Even though some people have not changed their perceptions, the overall fear of wolves is diminishing and people are starting to accept wolves into the environment.
Final Assessment
The reintroduction of wolves was one of the best conservationist programs that have been done in the past few decades. Their are so many reason why it is an over-whelming success and all of the perspectives that are negative towards the reintroduction of wolves can be countered. Even though Chip Watts stated that the conservationist’s promised that they would keep the wolves in Yellowstone National Park, Doug Smith was clear that they never promised that, and then stated that the main killers of livestock are not wolves (Q & A: Wolves). This is supported by an article from the Flathead Beacon in which Bret French states that “out of 1.7 million cattle deaths [in 2010], only 2.3 percent were caused by predators … [and] nationwide between 1991 and 2005, coyotes, dogs and mountain lions were the main killers of cattle” (20th Anniversary of Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Observed). Furthermore, Doug Smith again explains that wolf subspecies are so genetically similar that there is hardly a difference between the wolves that used to live in Yellowstone and the wolves that were reintroduced, and explains how wolves don’t kill for sport (Q & A: Wolves). Interestingly, in contrast to the statistics and research, both Chip Watts and Brad Grein’ arguments are based on the old belief of the wolves’ “mythical status as bloodthirsty, wasteful killers” (20th Anniversary of Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Observed). Hopefully, this old belief will fully disappear as the scientific data reveals the truth about wolves, for while everyone has their own perspectives based upon their personal experiences, the only way to get to the truth is by spreading the word of scientific evidence and research. By doing that, slowly and steadily people’s perspectives will change. Over a hundred years ago people like John Muir fought to protect the beauty of the west. Today, it is our job to continue and reinforce their legacy so that future generations will have a better world in which to live, and wolf reintroduction is a successful example of our ability to restore wild ecosystems, for as Doug Smith, leader of the wolf reintroduction project, stated, “you need to have the natural predators” (Q & A: Wolves).
Citations
20 Years of Wolves Back in Yellowstone. www.yellowstonepark.com. Web. 18 September 2015.
http://www.yellowstonepark.com/2015/01/20-years-after-wolves-reintroduction/
French, Brett. 20th Anniversary of Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Observed. Flathead Beacon. Web. 17 September 2015 http://flatheadbeacon.com/2015/01/15/20th-anniversary-yellowstone-wolf-reintroduction-observed/
Grein, Brad. Personal Interview. 15 September 2015
Monbiot, George. For more wonder, rewild the world. TED talk. Web. 10 September 2015. https://www.ted.com/talks/george_monbiot_for_more_wonder_rewild_the_world?language=en
Smith, Doug. Q & A: Wolves, Doug Smith. National Park Service. Web. 20 September 2015.
http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/qa-wolves.htm
Watts, Chip. Personal Interview. 14 September 2015
Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem. www.yellowstonepark.com. Web. 18 September 2015.
http://www.yellowstonepark.com/2011/06/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/