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Rolf Peterson investigating the carcass of a coyote killed by a wolf in Yellowstone National Park, January 1996. Scientists have been researching and studying the impacts on the Yellowstone ecosystem since re-introduction in 1995. As the wolf population in the park has grown, the elk population, their favored prey, has declined.
In recent years, however, Yellowstone's elk population has plummeted. The Northern Herd, the only herd that winters in the park, has declined from nearly 20,000 animals in 1994 to less than 4,000 in 2013. Ecologists have linked this decline to a declining population of cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake, caused by invasive lake trout. With ...
The recovery of populations throughout the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho has been so successful that on February 27, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population from the endangered species list. [127] As of January 2023, there are at least 108 wolves in the park in 10 packs. [128]
Greater Yellowstone Area Wolf Pack Territories 2002 (95% MCP except where noted) * A 75% MCP was calculated for these five home ranges because of a high fluctuation in movements.
From these sources, ecologists know the species was common in Greater Yellowstone when Europeans arrived and that the population was not isolated before the 1930s, but is now. Researchers do not know if bears were more or less common than now. A 1959-1970 bear study suggested a grizzly bear population size of about 176, later revised to about ...
A bull elk grazes in Gibbon Meadows in the west-central portion of the park. An elk grazes with a bison in the park. There are at least 67 species of mammals known to live within Yellowstone National Park, a 2,219,791 acres (898,318 ha) [1] protected area in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
Wolves from southeastern British Columbia recolonized northwestern Montana in 1986; by 1994 the population had grown to 7 packs and about 70-75 wolves. Wolves from Glacier National Park have dispersed naturally as far away as northeastern Idaho and just south of Yellowstone National Park. A wolf was shot near Yellowstone National Park in 1992.
As many as 4,000 wolves may be harvested in Canada each year. [133] The wolf is a protected species in national parks under the Canada National Parks Act. [134] In Alaska, 7,000–11,000 wolves are found on 85% of the state's 1,517,733 km 2 (586,000 sq mi) area. Wolves may be hunted or trapped with a license; around 1,200 wolves are harvested ...