Research- History of Wolves in Yellowstone

During my research I came across the history of Yellowstone National Park and that wolves have been very benefical to it. In the past I have watched various documentaries that have mentioned the park, however I didn't know that much about it. I found that this research showed wolves in a very positive life, which is not something I have come across a lot during my research.


When Yellowstone National Park was created in 1872, grey wolf populations were already in decline in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. This creation of the national park did not provide protection for wolves or other predators and government predators control programs in the first decades of the 1900's essentially helped eliminate the grey wolf from Yellowstone. The last wolves killed in Yellowstone were in 1926.

Once the wolves were gone the elk began to take over. Over the next few years conditions of Yellowstone national park declined drastically. The elk were multiplying inside the park and deciduous, woody species such as aspen and cottonwood suffered from overgrazing. In January 1995, U.S and Canadian officials captures 14 wolves from various parks and released them into Yellowstone. As the wolf population in the park has grown, the elk population, their favoured prey declined. The decline in Elk resulted in changes in flora, most specifically willows, cottonwoods and aspens along the fringes of heavily timbered areas.


My tutor Ian suggested that I look on this website that shows a short documentary on the changes that wolves have made to Yellowstone National Park: http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/how-wolves-can-save-ecosystem

Yellowstone Research