How Wolves Saved Yellowstone and Changed Rivers

In 1995, 14 wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. From there, those 14 wolves basically saved the entire park's collapsing ecosystem. This is the story behind the conservation of Yellowstone's wolves.Show more

On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the National Park Protection Act into law, creating the first national park: Yellowstone. The goal of creating the national park was to preserve the natural landscape and wildlife for generations to come.

The creation of Yellowstone protected most of the native species, but it didn’t provide protection for most of the predators, like the native wolves. As a result, by 1926 all the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf packs had been hunted to extinction. The removal of the wolves had wide-reaching effects on the park's ecosystem, as the wolves' prey increased in population, and their prey shrinking. After decades, wolf conservation efforts began and wolves were reintroduced, and like the avatar, finally brought peace. The story of wolf conservation and the wolf ecosystem in Yellowstone is an interesting example of the importance of keystone species play in their habitats. On top of that, golden eagles had to be saved on the channel islands to help save the channel island fox from the brink of extinction.