A keystone species helps define an entire ecosystem. Without its keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether.
New research questions the long-held theory that reintroduction of such a predator caused a trophic cascade, spawning renewal of vegetation and spurring biodiversity.
The commonly held claim that wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s spearheaded a "trophic cascade" of ecological restoration, as some studies indicated, is unfounded, according to results from a recently completed 20-year Colorado State University study.
The reintroduction of wolves and the concomitant natural recovery of cougars and grizzly bears to the landscapes of Yellowstone National Park after nearly a century of their absence from the food web created an unusual opportunity to test ecological theory relevant to restoring ecosystems worldwide.
Rewilding — the proposed restoration of ecosystems through the (re-)introduction of species — is seen by many as a way to stem the loss of biodiversity and the functions and services that biodiversity provides to humanity.
Trophic rewilding is an ecological restoration strategy that uses species introductions to restore top-down trophic interactions and associated trophic cascades to promote self-regulating biodiverse ecosystems.
Although wolf packs once roamed from the Arctic tundra to Mexico, loss of habitat and extermination programs led to their demise throughout most of the United States by the early 1900s.
Note: Include figures/data from 2024.
By 1926, as a result of federal and state predator control efforts, gray wolves (Canis lupus) were officially extirpated from Yellowstone National Park, WY.
At the end of December 2023, there were 124 wolves in eleven packs (six breeding pairs) living primarily in YellowstoneNational Park (YNP). Pack size ranged from two to 25, averaging 10.8 members
As the December solstice peaks and wanes, winter burrows itself deeper into the heart of Yellowstone. Geographically, Yellowstone National Park (YNP) is a cold and forbidding place in the winter.
Gray wolves were eradicated from most of the United States in the 1940’s but have made a comeback in parts of their historic range over the last two decades. First reintroduced into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and central Idaho in the mid-1990’s, wolves have subsequently dispersed into at least 7 western states.
Our relationship with, treatment of and scientific understanding about the wolf (formally, the gray wolf, Canis lupus) have always been a reflection of humankind’s beliefs about our own place in the universe.
