How Wolves Change Rivers

This is a fantastic short video about the reintroduction of wolves in the yellow stone national park.

The wolves as you might expect attacked and killed dear for food. This in turn had an effect on the behaviour of the dear and where they grazed.

Very quickly regeneration of flora increased in places like the valleys which the dear now avoided. Forests of aspen and willow started to grow in grassland areas.

With the growth of trees more birds moved in followed by beavers. The beavers in turn built dams with provided new habitats for the likes of otters and musk rats, reptiles and amphibians. More mice and rabbits appeared more hawks, weasels, foxes, badgers, ravens,eagles.

A fantastic thing was then seen to happen. The wolves changed the behaviour of the rivers. All the trees that started growing stabilised the ground around the river beds. The rivers meandered less and there was less erosion.



This process is known as a trophic cascade. Where the introduction of a top predator has major indirect actions on an ecosystem. It shows the complexity of ecosystems and how things are all linked. How small changes to can have major effects and how our own biosphere is sensitive to the way we treat it.

It only takes a few minutes to watch and is well worth the time..

reply to post by purplemer


I wish I could watch this but I am at work :/

This is a perfect example of how living things can all work together, even the plants and ultimately the earth itself.

It's why we are the worst thing that has happened to this planet, because we would have captured the deer, cut down the willows and shot all the other animals that moved there, humanity need to change.

Excellent video and well worth the watch!

It is quite incredible to see how much impact one particular species has to an entire ecosystem dependent on each one of it's members. To see that the wolves had such a dramatic effect is amazing in itself. It is truly remarkable to see that the undergrowth of vegetation was eaten down so much as to cause land erosion and when the wolves were re-introduced, the balance became apparent. They are needed as much as the rest.

I am afraid of how much damage we have caused by forcing our wicked ways onto this same ecosystem. Alot of humans just don't care enough to notice, but we are supposed to live and thrive in harmony with nature and all we seem to do is fight against it. I have a feeling that some of our negative influence is irreversible and will have detrimental ecological health effects for years. To come. It is a shame because the majority of us value money so much more over land and life....

havok

It is quite incredible to see how much impact one particular species has to an entire ecosystem dependent on each one of it's members. To see that the wolves had such a dramatic effect is amazing in itself. It is truly remarkable to see that the undergrowth of vegetation was eaten down so much as to cause land erosion and when the wolves were re-introduced, the balance became apparent. They are needed as much as the rest.

Call me a hippy or whatever, but I believe this what our intelligence was meant for, to intelligently manage the earth. Every creature evolves in a way that benefits the planet or another species in some way or another, why else would we have developed intelligence if it wasn't meant to help all living creatures.

I believe we were meant to see a problem like land erosion caused by particular animals and help restore the balance, however the main problem which nature could not foresee was those green bits of paper that we live our lives for.

reply to post by iRoyalty


Well seeing as we humans are the reason there were no more wolves in that particular area, I have to respectfully disagree and say that we maybe intelligent enough to see the problem, but we weren't put here to fix it. We should of had enough sense to begin with not to decimate the population from the beginning. Just like with the American Buffalo slaughter in the 1800's. Someone figured out how to make a ton of money from a defenseless animal and chose to gather men in order to completely destroy a species. All for a buck. At least the natives had enough common sense to spare the right amount of animals in order to balance things out. Of course, before European aristocratic people decided to "take over" this land, there were much more abundant animal resources in every corner. But that is another conspiracy...

I am no "hippie" or any other title for that matter, but I see blatant ignorance in our past that we finally are making up for. Alot of people did not care about the very land they robbed in those days, because they were selfish and benighted. They only cared about how much money they could get for a pelt thus destroying entire populations of different animals. We are a disgusting species at times.


But nature has a way of working things out...if we leave it alone.

reply to post by havok


Then perhaps we were meant to protect the planet from ourselves, in a beautiful paradox lol

I just found this which I thought was rather relevant.



We have a lot to change about ourselves, that's for sure.

Back in the day when the Native Americans lived here without the invasion of the europeans the ecology stayed in balance because they lived in harmony with their environment. They knew better than to mess with their environment because they lived close to it. Even a slight change would be noticed immediately.

I remember watching something about these areas where wolves were reintroduced in the states, great for the environment but a lot of people were hunting them, people like ranchers, farmers and a lot of people didn't like it due to risk.

There was an estate in Scotland that thought about it but thankfully didn't after realising it isn't suitable for the area.

Fascinating and informative. I had no idea that something so simple could cause such a dramatic effect on the eco system. Amazing!

reply to post by purplemer


Before I make comment I want to thank you for your post and video.

It is odd how we know and can prove how defective as a species we are and yet we do nothing about it.

We breed on with no regard for the consequence's...almost parasitic in nature.

please don't write off man so fast
we have a manage-mental problem
there's still lots to go round, and we could fix things well enough if we tried

the one percenters that think they run this show are the ones need to be told

reply to post by purplemer


This brings to mind "alpha" - something that is first : beginning

This video is awesome, thank your for sharing.

The video makes one think very deep, all the dimensions and layers of life, that can impact this lovely earth.

It is amazing to see mother natures response to the wolves bringing life to an area, almost a reward if you will. Everything working together to bring balance and in return mother nature responds in kind.

Absolutely amazing ! Breathtaking to consider.

leolady

It costs less to have wolves manage the deer herd and they do a better job than humans do.

Now, if the human population had it's wolves . . . humm.

ETA: Now that I've think of it, wolves are a great choice. Like the saying goes, "dog is man's best friend".

leolady
reply to post by purplemer

 

I am glad you enjoyed the video and it does make you wonder what else we may be effecting. It is evident that nature is finely tuned and that we should be are best to minimise our impact and understand better.

Thanks for posting this cool video.
I lived in Minnesota in the 80s. We'd do overnight fishing trips up around Ely, and we would often
hear the wolves howling. We were sitting by the lake one night drinking beer, and we hear a howl that
gave us all goosebumps. It was so beautiful, eerie and mournful. The 3rd howl on this vid sounds very similar.
It begins at 22 seconds:

reply to post by Danbones


lol you.. I am not writing off man,that is natures job if she so wishes.

I think most here are aware that we treat our home and the other species we share it with badly. It is inevitable that if we just continue to treat earth like an object that a tipping point will occur.

For the sake of ourselves and the other inhabitants of the planet we need to change. We need to change the relationship we have towards each other and the relationship we have we our biosphere.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


I would like to see wolves reintroduced to the UK. I know that it is not feasible in most places but it may be possible in areas. I live on the western isles there are uninhabited isles here. There is a lot of opposition to such schemes yet many are happy to expect other countries to live next to the like of elephants and tigers..

It would certainly make camping more interesting that is for sure...

reply to post by ColeYounger


Thanks for the video my dog pricked his ears up when I played that.. Picture of my dog on the beach inserted...

The Circle of Life (all native species in a given area) are a balance. Change that balance and there will be extenuating circumstances.

Great video.

I've always found wolves to be exceptional animals.
I'm drawn to them in some way.

Amazing how returning a piece of the ecological puzzle had such a positive impact on Yellowstone.....and none too soon.

The Sawtooth Pack


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