The reintroduction of large apex predators is an increasingly popular but controversial conservation practice worldwide. This project continues a 17-year study following wolves since their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park. Long-term goals of the project are to identify the impacts that wolves have on their main prey, elk; document evolutionary responses of wolves and elk following wolf reintroduction; and quantify the effects of wolves on community-level interactions in the park. In the final five years of a planned ten-year study, the investigators will follow individually marked wolves and elk to determine how and why wolf-elk interactions fluctuate over time, the effects of these fluctuations on wolf traits and vital rates, and how wolves, grizzly bears, and cougars interact either synergistically or antagonistically to influence elk mortality rates. By examining changes in predator-prey dynamics continuously since wolf reintroduction, the project is assembling data that are unique in the history of large predator restoration.
The broader impacts of this ongoing project have been, and will continue to be, extraordinary in large part because apex predators readily capture the public's attention. Results of the project are routinely covered by international media. Films, books for popular audiences, professional art exhibits, and museum exhibits have all been developed on the Yellowstone wolves and their impacts. Results of the project will continue to be critical to effective management of large predators as well as of endangered or threatened species. Results have also been incorporated into the Yellowstone National Park's interpretive programs, which annually reach over 250,000 park visitors. Finally, the project serves as the basis for graduate dissertation projects, has engaged over 70 aspiring scientists in field research, and supports undergraduate training through direct involvement in an exciting, high-profile project.
