Did wolves really help rivers in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem? Are wolves to blame for the loss of elk? Hunter Dan Pickar shares his thoughts on the impact of the 1995 wolf reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park. In part, wolves were reintroduced to improve the trophic cascade by manage elk and improve habitat. Thirty years later scientific data tells a different story. The impact of bison in the ecosystem has been overshadowed by the focus on elk.
- Read the results of the study by Daniel MacNulty et al. here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1…
- Review National Park Service data on the history of bison management in Yellowstone: https://www.nps.gov/articles/bison-hi…
- Watch the trophic cascade video Dan mentions:
• How Wolves Change Rivers
2 comments
Not fond of wolf meat but sure do like eating the over populated elk and deer
Great synopsis of the ever growing problems with DNR releasing predators into the ecosystem trying to accomplish over population of a certain animal, then another takes it’s place. They need to let the Hunters harvest the over populated animals , and stop making it harder and harder to pull tags. The normal Hunter today can’t afford the tag prices or even get the opportunity to pull a tag in most western states.