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How Wolves Change Rivers

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How Wolves Change Rivers
Tina Teng (10 B)
Science
Mr. Lee
November 13th, 2014
Can Wolves Really Change Rivers?
Wolves can really change rivers. Wolves bring the benefit to the ecosystem by killing and eating other animals. Unfortunately, people realize the fact only until the absence of these apex predators, also known as alpha predators. Apex predators are predators with no natural predators of their own and resides at the top of their food chain. Many people think that predators bring harm to the ecosystem by killing and eating other animals, but they don’t realize the benefit they bring and the harm of the absence of these apex predators. After being absent for over 70 years, the wolves were reintroduced in the Yellowstone National Park in the United States in 1995. (Wolf Restoration Continued) Researchers have studied the behavior of other animals and plants and the slight changes on the ecosystem overtime, and they have stumbled across one of the most exciting scientific findings of how wolves not only changed the ecosystem but also the rivers.
Wolves helped the balance of the ecosystem. Wolves kill various species of animals, but perhaps we're slightly less aware that they give life to many others. In 1872 when the Yellowstone National Park was created, there was no legal protection for wildlife in the park so hunters and tourists were essentially free to kill any game or predator they came across. From 1915 to 1925 up to 134 wolves were killed, and by 1926 there were no wolves left in Yellowstone National Park. (Yellowstone Park Wolves.) During the 70 years of absence due to illegal hunting and killing, several things happened. The numbers of deer had greatly increased in the Yellowstone Park because there was nothing to hunt them since their predator is now extirpated to nothing. (Wolves- Sustainable man)By this time many biologists were worried about eroding land and plants dying off. The elk were multiplying inside the park and deciduous, woody species such as aspen and


Bibliography: "Yellowstone Park Wolves." Yellowstone Park Wolves. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/wolves.htm>. United States. National Park Service. "Wolf Restoration Continued." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 03 Nov. 2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wolfrest.htm>. "History of Wolves in Yellowstone." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wolves_in_Yellowstone>.  "Maybe Wolves Don 't Change Rivers, After All." Strange Behaviors. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014. <http://strangebehaviors.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/maybe-wolves-dont-change-rivers-after-all/>. "This Will Shatter Your View of Apex Predators: How Wolves Change Rivers." Voices. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/16/this-will-shatter-your-view-of-apex-predators-how-wolves-change-rivers/>. PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/in-the-valley-of-the-wolves/reintroduction-of-the-wolves/213/>. United States. National Park Service. "Wolf Restoration Continued." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 03 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wolfrest.htm>. Ripple, William J., and Robert L. Beschta. "Wolves and the Ecology of Fear: Can Predation Risk Structure Ecosystems?" N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http%3A%2F%2Fbioscience.oxfordjournals.org%2Fcontent%2F54%2F8%2F755.full.pdf%2Bhtml>. "How Wolves Change Rivers - Sustainable Man." Sustainable Man. Sustainable Man, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014. <http://sustainableman.org/blog/2014/02/17/how-wolves-change-rivers/>. Middleton, Arthur. "Is the Wolf a Real American Hero?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Mar. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/opinion/is-the-wolf-a-real-american-hero.html>. "Friends of the Cacapon." Riverbanks. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. <http://www.cacaponriver.org/index.php/home-owners-packet/9-riverbanks-how-to-stabilize-and-repair-them>.
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