Wolf’s Perspective

From the wolves' perspective, this is clearly good news. But it also had beneficial effects on the ecology of the park, according to a study published in 2004 by William Ripple and Robert Beschta from Oregon State University. In their paper in BioScience, the two researchers showed that reintroducing the wolves was correlated with increased growth of willow and cottonwood in the park. Why? Because grazing animals such as elk were avoiding sites from which they couldn't easily escape, the scientists claimed . And as the woody plants and trees grew taller and thicker, beaver colonies expanded.