Wolves: An Unwanted Predator

Wolf: An unwelcome predator, a gray wolf as a predator wrapped deeply in its packaging, causes fear and praise to humans. This fear and ignorance affected the campaign to eliminate gray wolves from 48 states in the early 1900s. By the early 1930 's, a group of gray wolves disappeared completely from the Rocky Mountains (Bangs et al., 147). In 1973, Congress passed the Endangered Species Protection Act and protects wolves that migrate naturally from Canada (Bangs et al., 147).

As a top carnivore, wolves are one of the keys to Yellowstone Park. And it has a delicate balance of predators and prey. The fact that they were taken away in the early twentieth century destroyed the food web and caused the so-called 'nutritional cascade' which is increasingly consumed as wolf's natural food (in this case, moose) increases, more Leaves. This phenomenon was reversed when wolves were reintroduced and natural balance recovered. When the wolves were returned to the park, they not only killed the elk but also changed the behavior pattern of the prey. Herbivores have begun to avoid areas such as valleys and canyons where they are easily hunted by predators. As a result, these areas began to regenerate and seeds such as birds, beavers, rats, bears and so forth came back. Plant life grows again along the river bank, and erosion is greatly reduced. The stability of the river bank actually changed the direction of the river and the river.

Today, after the wolf has been reintroduced into the park for nearly 25 years, top predators have helped restore some ecosystems. They drastically reduced the elk population and opened doors to populations of willow, poplar, beaver, and songbird. However, the wolf did not become a silver bullet of the whole ecosystem. As part of the recovery of the Yellowstone a fierce debate began in the academic world about how regaining the best predators (like wolves) can help recover damaged ecosystems. This is a consequence from the United States to India and Africa, where naturalists want to keep vulnerable ecosystems as complete as possible by avoiding the elimination of lions, tigers, sharks and other best predators is.