preview

Keystone Species Research Paper

Decent Essays

A keystone species is a species that has such a large impact on the ecosystem that without it other species couldn’t survive. A famous example of how keystone species affect the ecosystem can be the influence that wolves have on Yellowstone’s biodiversity. Without wolves, the ecologic balance in the park would be compromised: their absence would result in the overpopulation of elk, which causes a decrease of the vegetation to almost nothing. Canis lupus, also known as gray wolf, is the largest member of its family: males weigh on average 43-45 kg and females 36-38.5kg. It lives in Eurasia and North America and since it is a habitat generalist, it can be found in deserts, grasslands, forests, and arctic tundras. The color of his fur can vary …show more content…

Before the reintroduction of wolves in 1995, the elk population was increasing too much, despite efforts by human to limit its growth. That provoked a drastic diminution of the vegetation, which led to a decrease of the biodiversity in the park. But in 1995, wolves started to prey upon elks and deers, which led to an increase of the vegetation. The deers started to avoid certain areas of the park, like the valleys, where wolves could track them easily. In those areas, the vegetation started to grow and the tree height quintupled in only 6 years. As soon as aspens, willow and cottonwood forests started to regenerate, bird started to repopulate the park. Also, the number of beavers started to increase; beavers use wood to create dams, which are the perfect habitat for otters, muskrats, fishes, ducks, amphibians and reptiles. The wolves also killed coyotes, which led to an increase in the population of rabbits and mices. Because of this increase, more ravens, hawks, bald eagles, foxes, weasels and badgers started to inhabit the park and feed off of the carcass left by the wolves. The bear population started to raise as well since there were more berries. Bears intensified the effect of the wolves by eating some of the calves of deer. The wolves impacted also abiotic components, like the rivers: there was less erosion, the channels narrowed and more lakes started to …show more content…

Then in 1883, new laws were introduced to protect certain species; however, wolves, bears, coyotes and other predators were not defended by those laws. Since the summer of 1886, the control of predators was left to the park’s administration and hunting of wildlife was prohibited. In 1914 the first wolves got killed and by 1926 they were extirpated from the park. The first 14 wolves were reintroduced during January 1995, and other 17 had been released in April 1996; these wolves were captured respectively from Jasper National Park and Canada. No more wolves have been imported into Yellowstone after 1996, since biologists believed that the 31 present ones would have reproduced and prayed enough to maintain the biological

Get Access