Bringing Back The Wolves recounts the very successful re-introduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995. For the previous seventy years, wolves were absent from a large area of the American west. Beginning in the late 1800's the American government placed a bounty on wolves that led to their complete elimination from the West by 1926. While such a policy was a boon to ranchers, it had a major impact on the ecology of the area.
These are all part of the Yellowstone food web, an intricate relationship between animals, plants, birds, water, and soil. The absence of an apex predator, the wolf, allowed elk to increase in population, which led to over-grazing of grass and trees. The result was a transformed landscape and more impacts throughout the food web. But in 1995, that was about to change.
When wolves were re-introduced into the park in late January of 1995, there was plenty of prey for wolves. For the first decade after the wolf reintroduction, elk herds were so large, each wolf killed about eighteen to twenty-two elk per year. As the elk population began to decline, changes began to happen in the Yellowstone ecosystem. The park vegetation began to re-establish itself , with more grasses, and full grown trees. The populations of other canids, coyotes and foxes in the park also changed. As the years went by and the wolf population grew, the ecosystem began to heal and researchers saw more and more changes, all of them bringing about a more balanced natural environment.
Discussion
Bringing Back The Wolves is both engaging and very informative. Isabella has covered all the bases in this detailed nonfiction picture book that explores the ways the re-introduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park healed local ecosystem. Bringing Back The Wolves explains the complex relationships between the many species of animals and plants in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Readers will learn how the absence of the wolf harmed these relationships and how their return brought each part of the ecosystem back into balance.
For example, the return of the wolves resulted in more elk carcasses for grizzly bears, allowing them to better prepare for the winter. These carcasses also provided food for various types of decomposers such as insects, bacteria and molds, which break down the carcass enriching the soil. More insects mean more food for birds. Fewer elk also allowed willow, cottonwood and aspen trees to grow back, providing homes for birds, beavers and other animals. Fewer elk allowed berry bushes to mature and produce more fruit for insects, birds and black bears. The interconnectedness in the food web is well explained in easy to understand text. Each page features colourful illustrations rendered in Photoshop by artist Kim Smith.
Isabella avoids any discussion about the controversy of the wolf reintroduction into the park or the delisting of wolves as an endangered species. This book focuses entirely on the ecology of the wolves in relation to Yellowstone and what scientists have learned in the last twenty-five years.
As Isabella concludes, "Twenty-five years after their reintroduction, about 500 wolves roam the great Yesllowstone ecosystem, staking their claim in the food web. Wolves have helped to balance the ecosystem just by being themselves, apex predators. But perhaps even more important, studying the wolves has exposed just how complex and interconnected the ecosystem is, revealing surprising links no one could have imagined."
Bringing Back The Wolves is highly recommended for anyone interested in ecology, wolves and for unit studies in school. Isabella rounds out the information with a Glossary, a list of Resources and an Index.
Those interested in reading more about the wolves in Yellowstone National Park are directed to the US National Park Service website.
Book Details:
Bringing Back The Wolves: How a Predator Restored An Ecosystem by Jude Isabella
Toronto: Kids Can Press 2019
39 pp.
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