Ungulate prey base for wolves in Yellowstone National Park
Singer FJ. 1991. Ungulate prey base for wolves in Yellowstone National Park. Pages 323-347. In Singer FJ. The Greater Yellowstone ecosystem: redefining America's wilderness heritage. Yale University Press. New Haven, CT
Yellowstone National Park has been identified as one of three potential recovery sites for the gray wolf, Canis lupus (U.S. Fish and Wilflife Service 1987). Many questions have arisen regarding the choice of Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas as a proposed recovery site, including a recovered wolf populations's impact on big game numbers. Large generally unjunted populations of elk and bison exist in the area, the size of remote national park and forest wilderness areas exceeds 2 million hectares (5 million acres), and the wolf is the only missing element of Yellowstone's fauna. Yet big game hunting is a major industry in Greater Yellowstone, and the extent to which wolves will populate areas outside the park and compete with hunters for elk and other ungulates is unknown. How much effect wolves will have on big game is debatable-the predictions range from none to all, to minor, to significant.
- Type
- Book Chapter
- Authors
- Singer, Francis
- Units
- YELL
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Ecology, Ecosystems, Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), Mammals, Management, Population, Predation, Range, Reintroduction (Canis lupus), Ungulates, Wolves (Canidae)