The impact of reintroduced wolves on the elk population in Yellowstone (proposal) Hunter Roberts

Wolves in yellowstone If wolf numbers in Yellowstone National Park keep escalating then the park will lose its ecological diversity. If there’s more wolves, then there will be less prey species like deer, elk, moose, etc. These claims make sense, an ecosystem can only hold so much of one species before other species become impacted, which in turn will cause another species to be affected and so on. This is known as a trophic cascade. This is how a trophic cascade works. A predator affects a herbivore which in turn affects the plants. This makes the predator an indirect cause of destruction on the plant level.

Wolves and Elk Wolves are a pack animal that hunt in a group to bring down large prey animals. The average number of wolves in a pack in Yellowstone is about 10 wolves per pack, Which doesn’t seem like a huge number until you break it down into what one wolf can eat. On average, to reproduce successfully a wolf needs about five pounds of food per day, but one wolf can eat up to 22.5 pounds of meat in one sitting. Going with the lesser of the two, a pack of wolves would need around 50 pounds give or take a few pounds per day to survive and reproduce. In Yellowstone the wolves major prey source is the Rocky Mountain Elk. Like most predators, the wolf will hunt and single out the smaller weaker animals in a group (which would likely be elk calves). An elk calf on average weighs around 35-50 pounds. Do the math. In order to survive the pack would have to kill 1-2 elk calves a day. Over the course of a year, wolves have a huge impact on the elk herds. To see how a wolf pack works in order to bring down prey watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAd00BMGwwE

This graph shows the impact of wolves on the elk population since 1994 This graph shows the impact of wolves on the elk population since 1994. The year before reintroduction. (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Web 2012)

What to do? What will the park gain? Yellowstone should offer wolf permits to sportsmen either through a draw system where hunters apply in a drawing for wolf permits, or through an auction system where hunters bid for the chance to hunt the wolves, the park will gain revenue because highly sought after tags have been known to sell for more than $250,000, and the park could set prices on the tags. It would not take a lot of time to determine a hunting season on wolves. Yellowstone could set the number of tags they want to issue based on the current wolf numbers and issue less or more tags depending on the year. A wolf hunting season in Yellowstone could offer a huge educational benefit to the parks and the wildlife biologists who focus on the wolf populations there. Yellowstone could set required harvest reports and tests on wolves that are harvested in the park. This would be a series of dental and health-related tests on wolves that have been harvested within the parks boundaries. These tests can determine age, health, diet, and disease records on wolves harvested in certain areas of the park. Which can help the overall well-being of wolves in the park. If a wolf harvested in the northern region of the park has a disease, they can track down which pack it came from and determine if the disease has been passed to other wolves and stop it before it spreads to wolves throughout the entire park.

Possible Setbacks The biggest objection concerning this proposal is the Lacey Act and the Code of Federal Regulations which prohibit the removal of any animal alive or dead from inside Yellowstone. The law was put into place to help avoid the reintroduction of non-native/invasive species into an area where they can cause harm or spread disease. This may be hard to find a loophole or get around. But if the numbers of wolves get out of hand then there just might have to be some changes made to the law in order to protect the future of the park.

Possible Setbacks Anti-hunters will protest this proposal to the end. Animal rights is becoming a bigger deal every day. Animal rights activists claim that hunting is just a killing sport. These activists base their arguments off of opinions and not solely off of facts. It is hard to get the point across to someone who is so passionate about their beliefs. This proposal is not to eradicate all of the wolves in Yellowstone it is to harvest a set number of wolves in order to conserve the future of the park and the other animals in the park. It is not a full blown extermination.

Positive outcome The positive outcomes of this proposal is that the ecosystem in Yellowstone will keep its diversity through healthy conservation practices. The numbers of predators and prey will stay in check and will not cause over population, over grazing, or fight for territory in the park. It is hard to imagine Yellowstone National Park without its plant and animal diversity. Yellowstone is home to hundreds of different species of animals and plants. Going to Yellowstone and seeing buffalo, elk, bear, moose, wolves, deer, beavers, rabbits, etc. is all part of the experience. These animals and the diverse ecosystem add to the natural beauty of the park. If wolf numbers keep getting out of hand you may be taking your children to see a bloodfest. Wolves fighting over their most recent kills, the growing pack number would cause wolves to fight to the death over territory. The park could get overrun if the wolf numbers get uncontrollable. Human lives can be put at risk, if a human runs into a starving pack of wolves the outcome might not be on the side of the human. Keeping the populations of wolves in check will help keep these animals around for future generations.

Kowalewski, David. “Howling about Trophic Cascades” Australian Journal of Environmental Education, v28 n1 p17-26 Jul 2012 Web http://eric.ed.gov/?q=wolves&id=EJ100069   Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, “Get the Facts” Web 2012 http://rmefblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/get-facts.html   Big Wolf Run Ranch, About Wolves Web 2010 http://www.bigrunwolfranch.org/about_wolves.html National Parks Service U.S. Department of the Interior Wolves in Yellowstone 2012 Web http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wolves.htm Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Elk Facts web http://www.rmef.org/ElkFacts.aspx U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Lacey Act web http://www.fws.gov/international/laws-treaties-agreements/us-conservation-laws/lacey-act.html