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The wolf is a creature of mystery, a creature of power. Why is it that so many are
afraid of this planet's predators? Are we truly afraid of them, or do we just not
understand? Every single animal has a role to play one way or another. Whether
it is to serve as food for one species or to help control the population of another.
Everything has a place whether we can see it or not, and the wolf has just as an
important role to play.
Some see the predators on this planet as a danger to not only us, but also a danger
to some our ways of life. Many who have livestock fear them because they may try
to hunt their animals and in the end they will lose money and suffer. Others
fear them because they are powerful animals and fear them just out of simple
stupidity. All over the planet we are killing an important role in the ecosystem,
and not always out of fear, but also some for profit. And it is not just the
wolves, but all predators including lions, tiger, crocs., etc. Then in many
areas, especially in the US we are seeing a dramatic rise in the amount of prey
animals, especially deer because there are not enough predator species to keep
them in check. So we resort to killing them on our own to try and keep them in
check. However, it will never work because we have a systematic way of killing
them mainly by sex and age. But the predators will not pick and choose them in
that way, but other ways that will weed out the weak making it that only the
strong survive. But now there are too many of some prey and they are starving
because there is too much competition for food.
In this day and age more people are worried about getting ahead and making money than
taking care of the environment or even having fun. We need more people like Steve
Irwin, that didn’t necessarily want to become famous, but just wanted to do what he
loved and help to inform people that just because we might see an animal as evil, it's
just because of our ignorance and fear that we may perceive it like that. What Steve
did was not just a job for him but it was also a way of life and for his love of animals
that he did what he did. There is a balance in this country and many others that is
slipping further and further from the normalcy, because we are disrupting it for our
own benefit. Even though many believe that some animal populations are getting
out of control, it is actually people that are getting out of control. We are the
ones that are multiplying at an alarming rate, consuming more and more resources, and
polluting. We need to realize that it may not be that some animal populations
might not be increasing, but we are decreasing their land and therefore we are
seeing more of the species since they are confined to a smaller area.
Once we get wolf populations up enough in zoos and reservations to the point
where we can reintroduce them into the wild where there will be enough packs
to make everything stable it will then be up to us to make sure that they
continue to flourish. But people as a whole are a long way off with dealing
with the reintroduction of wolves. Because they are already wolf packs that have
been reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park, and there have even been
problems there. Because every so often they might get turned onto a neighboring
farms livestock because the leaders of the pack decided on it. And the only
solution that we can think of is just getting rid of the one that is leading the
attacks on the farm. I understand that farming might be their way of life and
they can't afford to loose any livestock, but that's just it people as a whole
just can't stop thinking about themselves.
In Yellowstone National Park they were doing research on why there has been hardly
any new aspen tree growth and all of the older trees are dying off. They had found
that most of the growth had stopped in 1930 when the last wolf was killed in
Yellowstone. Then in 1995 while conducting a completely different experiment, 31
Grey wolves were imported from Canada to Yellowstone. The wolves travel in packs so
they can take down larger prey than most other predators that hunt alone. And now
there are roughly 16 packs and over 140 wolves in Yellowstone. They are even more
important to the ecosystem that the obvious reasons, because their kills not only
feed them but literally hundreds, because the leftovers from a wolf pack kill can
also feed coyotes, vultures, hawks and many different types of insects. The
elimination of Yellowstone wolves allowed elk to browse aspen trees willingly and
now where elk are on the run trees and shrubs are now coming back. Since things
are starting to go back to normal there are also other animals coming back that
have been absent, like the beaver. It was found out that wolves, through elk,
through the vegetation, might actually control the character of the Lamar River,
since they are seeing such a shift in the way it looks. By putting back one thing
were restoring a whole system and how it works. Bringing back predators invites
surprises. It isn't tidy. Whether we decide to expand this strategy depends on our
willingness to see adversaries in a new way. Predators are a powerful force that
keeps ecosystems strong and resilient.
When you think of wolves, they just seem to encompass everything about the wild.
Whenever there's a big undisturbed forest in a movie you can always seem to hear
the howl of a wolf pack in the distance. I think that everyone would like to
sit on a ledge overlooking a forest and a clear lake at dusk just to hear the
call of wolves off in the distance. Because it is a sound that is eerie but
also amazingly soothing at the same time.
We can only hope that people open their eyes before it is too late for other
species and for ourselves. Because now predators, once fearsome beasts, now look
out on a world overrun by humans. The very survival of big predators is now at stake.
When once we asked, "can we live with them?" we are now asking, "can we
live without them?" That more heroes like Steve Irwin arise to help spread
the word and do their part to help animals. That we can't just help ourselves, but
also everything else that we share this planet with. Because until we can learn to
live in peace with animals, then we won't be at peace with ourselves. But what we
all need to remember is a little line from The Lord of the Rings, "Even
the smallest person can change the course of the future." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Philip Stefancin - 2006
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