Ecology is a vast study of living things and how they interact. By gathering ideas from Chapter 13, Chapter 14, and Chapter 16 we learned many things about ecology. To tie these things all together, we watched the movie “Never Cry Wolf”. This movie showed us that in every type of environment there are connections that are more human than we know. The main character, Tyler, is sent on a mission in the Arctic to study wolves and see if they are responsible for the population decrease of caribou. He meets Rosie, a man who flies him out into the wilderness on his plane. Rosie is very careless and spontaneous with his actions. The wolves that Tyler studies are named George and Angelica and their children. You can’t forget Uncle Albert too! Along …show more content…
First of all, Tyler in the movie studied the relationships between the wolves and caribou just like the ecologists our textbook talked about studying relationships. Second, Tyler used the biotic and abiotic factors to study the wolves’ behavior. The temperature and food conditions could affect the decline in caribou. Also, the keystone species was the caribou so, if you remove all caribou that land wouldn’t be sustainable. Another key way the movie relates is the topic of food webs. Wolves eat anything they can find; from the mice to the caribou. Lastly, the cycles of resources. The water cycle has a strong impact on the wolves because if there are too many clouds the wolves will get too cold and will lose their food because of the food …show more content…
One being, habitat and niche. The wolves habitat was the arctic and one of its’ niches was that it hunts in a pack. Another niche is that they only have a few cubs like George and Angelica had 2 cubs. Secondly, competition and predation. The text says that every ecosystem has this trait and the movie definitely supports that. In the movie there was competition over food and the predation of the caribou. Third, population density and dispersion. The different packs of wolves moved all around and were dispersed and not very dense at all. Though, the caribou were very dense and traveled all together not just a few in one pack. Fourth, population growth. Like previously mentioned, wolves only have a few cubs so the population growth stays mostly the same. Lastly, the ecological succession. This happened more with the caribou than the wolves because of their decline in population from the wolves. Lastly, in Chapter 16 there were many points about human impact on ecosystems. In “Never Cry Wolf”, the human impact wasn’t huge, but it existed. Ootek implied that killing a wolf is worth a lot of money. Chapter 16 focused on water quality too, which can relate to the movie. If the wolves, or Tyler for that matter, didn’t have clean water they wouldn’t be able to survive. There are not many people in the Arctic, so there isn’t much pollution. The ecological footprint of the wolves was small because they don’t have trash
By looking at the graph from 4.1 there is a pattern of existence between the population of moose and wolves where both the moose and wolves population fluctuates constantly. When the moose was abundant their food source was low. When the wolves came they lowered the moose population in turn raising
population and other things within the valley. The wolves did not have an easy life due to the
I have trapped over 40 years at Peerless Lake many years ago and now returned and have travelled all my life in the woods. I could tell you many instances of timber wolves and the moose, and on those days there were millions of rabbits as feed for the wolf [my emphasis], and today very few rabbits. Perhaps today you don’t realize the destruction of the moose between the hunters and wolves and bears.
The first element we should talk about is plot; the plot structure for The Wolves is a variation. The two plot structures it is similar to the most are climatic and circular. In climatic plot structure the characteristics are few characters, few locations, late point of attack, and few plots. The Wolves share the characteristics of few characters, few locations (where they played their games), and a late point of attack (when number fourteen was killed). Circular plot structure characteristics are it ends where it began, and the expression of futility and meaninglessness of human effort. The Wolves also ended where it began (beginning of a soccer game).
elk killed by wolves also provides vital food source for predators such as grizzlies and black bears and for scavengers such as coyotes and ravens.
For one, by 1980, wolves doubled to 50. By then it was apparent, ‘balance of nature’ seems to be the force that guides nature. This shows that wolves should be introduced because they are needed for balance
Predators play a fundamental role in maintaining ecosystem health. Research strongly supports the contributions of wolves in particular to the functioning and stability
Also, the government wanted to step in and help the economy, so bounties were set in order to encourage the hunting of the creatures. Communities began to see the "bounty hunters" as heroes, and these men felt as such. The attitude towards wolves spiraled out of control, causing hunts based on vengeance and hatred, and inhumane practices of poisoning, trapping, and torturing began. Even a former governor of Alaska, Jay Hammond, felt that flying in a plane and shooting down hundreds of wolves was necessary to protect the citizens of the state. Wolf furs were coveted, the animals were loathed, and the image of the wolf as a cowardly murderer stuck based on old-fashioned beliefs and legend-based fears. Nothing was done to stop the practices, and the hunts continued to be encouraged, until there were basically no wolves left to hunt (Lopez 139-145). It was nearly too late once the problem was noticed, but the government finally stepped in to address the problem. The wolves were going extinct, and it became clear that the animals were an important part of the ecosystem. The timber (gray) wolf was placed on the endangered species list, and severe consequences were put into action for anyone who hunted the animals illegally. The Wisconsin DNR began a very carefully regulated action plan to reintroduce the wolf to the state, which included radio collars and careful tracking of the animals in order to monitor their progress, as well as make sure they stay in
Although wolves are dangerous they can also be one of your best friends. Wolves have haunted us for years, or that is at least that is what we think. To really understand wolves you have to do some research about them. But, luckily I have already done that for you. Don just kill wolves because you are afraid of them. Wolves serve a great purpose in our ecosystem. It would be a shame to see wolf population decrease as much as it did before in Yellowstone. The reintroduction of wolves has affected the Yellowstone ecosystem in many ways, there will be contributions from wolves that we will not see until a long time.
They are highly social, and have a range of commutation methods, including expressive body language, scent markings, vocalization and their famous howling. That was the story of the gray wolf he or she is a great hunter, and hider. Also, they have many habitats
Without the proper knowledge needed to understand how the wolf works, the creature is inaccurately shown as a wild, vicious killer. As Mowat progresses through his research he learns about the wolves hunting abilities and begins to acquire new information and states,” I could hardly believe that the all-powerful and intelligent wolf would limit his predation on the caribou herds to culling the sick and infirm when he could presumably, take his choice of the fattest and most succulent individuals” (Mowat 126). The way the government and people portray wolves as mindless killers is not only false, but it is far from the truth. Wolves are instead intelligent creatures that have the ability to choose and pick the right kill. Also, as Mowat researches their eating habits he finds that “the wolves of Wolf House Bay, and, by inference at least, all the Barren Land wolves who were raising families outside the summer caribou range, were living largely, on mice” (Mowat 107). During the summer the wolves weren’t even that cause of the deaths of caribou. Instead they found new resources to live off of when the caribou leave so they can continue to survive. This information is an exact contrast to the
When this happened the wolves had to adapt to the new caribou migratory patterns. One time in the middle of hunting season the migratory
For a number of years the wolves were not missed by most people, the ranchers and farmers were happy to have the pests gone. Coyotes,
After years of selective breeding and taming, the hunters finally came across some wolves that were able to listen to commands and do what they were ordered to do. These wolves did not look like the first ones with which humans came into contact. Their size, coloring, senses and even the length of their coat or swimming ability reflected the environment in which they lived. These environments could have ranged from anything since hunters do not stay in one place for very long. These wolves probably did not reflect their gray ancestors much anymore. The color of their coat could have become brown, black, or even yellow depending on where they were taken. Their size could have been affected, too, depending on how the hunters had used them- they could have shrunken to the size
The wolves' habit of hunting in packs has resulted in the development of complex patterns of social behavior. Wolves are gregarious: they not only hunt in packs or groups but live most of their lives with other wolves. Studies in Alaska, Minnesota, Michigan , and parts of Canada show that a family made up of male, female, and pups is the basic pack unit. Other adults are pups of previous years or, more rarely, adults from other packs. Adolescent