How Wolves Saved Yellowstone

In 1995, 14 wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. From there, those 14 wolves basically saved the entire park's collapsing ecosystem. (How Wolves Saved Yellowstone). This is the story behind the conservation of Yellowstone's wolves.
On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the National Park Protection Act into law, creating the first national park: Yellowstone. The goal of creating the national park was to preserve the natural landscape and wildlife for generations to come.
The creation of Yellowstone protected most of the native species, but it didn’t provide protection for most of the predators, like the native wolves. As a result, by 1926 all the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf packs had been hunted to extinction.
The removal of the wolves had wide-reaching effects on the park's ecosystem, as the wolves prey increased in population, and their prey shrinking. After decades, wolf conservation efforts began and wolves were reintroduced, and like the avatar, finally brought peace.
The story of wolf conservation and the wolf ecosystem in Yellowstone is an interesting example of the importance of keystone species play in their habitats.
If you like this video, be sure to check out our playlist of best videos here: • Sneaky Tricks Grocery ...
Subscribe to stay up to date on the latest stories from the scientific world! / @everythingscience

[@EverythingScience]

Most of you don't know this, but this video actually gets more views than my next 50 most popular videos combined (this video alone gets more than HALF the views my whole channel gets). If you like the video and like learning new and cool things, you should definitely try checking out some of our newer videos!

[@roxannafees8624]

Probably because of science teachers like me who need a phenomena to talk about around a topic!

[@EverythingScience]

@@roxannafees8624 true heroes out here

[@robf.1493]

The original video I saw years ago and what the wolves did for the ecosystem in Yellowstone is the very reason that for the past 11+ years I have advocated for wolves. I have written letters/emails to state governments & the states Fish and Wildlife who make many bad decisions - made phone calls - and spread the news on social media - I am now retired and I don't do it as much now as I used to but I still fight for them on occasion. The was a balance of nature, God created every living thing with a purpose and that is for our planets survival, when that balance it thrown off then eventually the planet will suffer. And no one government can be blamed because it's been going on for many decades.

[@ralphmaughan7951]

I have almost the story as you . . . amazing!

[@frankmorris4790]

Romance will do that. the big Gubberment doggy's are beautiful, I'll give ya that. But it's a case of expectations vs. reality. once the wolves get close enough to town to dine on Fee Fee , Puff, and the odd toddler, they'll be squeakin' like the ignorant always do... "Mexican Gray wolves, Smoke a pack a day'~ Some brilliant, handsome, unknown hick~

[@NOT_an_egg_cultist]

This is the effect of population balance. It is quite surprising how impactful it is to put an apex predator back in!

[@Mr.Ut21]

Apex predator? Oh, you mean a HUNTER. Yes, we are quite concerned with the health of our game and wildlife.

[@ayoungethan]

The population explosion isn't what created overgrazing, it's the spreading and sedentary lingering of the herbivores in a single location. Trophic cascades impact prey behavior, first and foremost. Population dynamics is only one of those behavioral impacts. This is a really important distinction that should be mentioned earlier in the video.

[@ayoungethan]

@@Mr.Ut21 not all humans are. Wolf hunters were not concerned about the health. They were hunting for extermination. Still are. But yeah, many hunters are concerned. It makes no sense to not be concerned.

[@hyenaboy7504]

@@Mr.Ut21 "Apex predator? Oh, you mean a HUNTER" yes, that's what "predator" means.

[@hyenaboy7504]

@@ayoungethan Wolf hunters are motivate by either greed or fear. Both of those can drive us to do terrible things (sometimes without considering the consequences). Some care only about the money they get from killing them, while others are afraid that they'll be the wolves' next meal, so they try and kill them before said wolves get the chance. (Ancient folklore hasn't really helped, either).

[@abhaadhikari809]

Wolves must not be extinct! They are wonderful creatures

[@st_game8344]

No they are not the eat cows piss off the ranchers etc

[@frankmorris4790]

You are in the United States?

[@frankmorris4790]

@Jim Bartz I was speaking to Abba

[@hyenaboy7504]

@@frankmorris4790 What does that have to do with anything?

[@frankmorris4790]

And you are in Hawaii? If so MYOB wahini! Nobody mentioned "extinction" and you have never been closer to them than the Animal Planet.

[@thatgirlwhousedtohavereall5549]

Wildlife management is quite interesting. I’ve never thought about it.

[@EverythingScience]

Definitely! Since the national parks are a bit more secluded from human interactions (compared to say the suburbs) they offer some really cool opportunities to learn about how different wildlife interact with each other!

[@Mr.Ut21]

Hunters think about it on a near daily basis. You should try it sometime.

[@frankmorris4790]

Yeah, the Gubberment should learn how to do it. Try living with wolves it ain't as cool as the lying, (yes lying) bunny huggers would have you believe....

[@TrippWhitney328]

@@frankmorris4790 Oh yes totally agreed bunny huggers are the worst the worst

[@ncc_1827]

I needed this for my work and it helped me greatly! Subscribed after seeing this one.

[@madeleinesfamilydoesitall9827]

I was looking for this for ages. Your video is transparent and good quality. I showed this to my boys 7 and 10. It is well made.we can save our planet together. Thank you.🌍🍀🌲🕷🌺🐟🦌🐺🌍

[@frankmorris4790]

Isn't it just great, living on the pavement, and preaching...

[@Yellowstonewolves]

Excellent video - I will share it on my channel as well, well done!

[@thesummerland6165]

thank you for sharing this vital info on how important wolves are and how sentient and evolved family-wise they are

[@EverythingScience]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

[@TRUE-WORSHIPPER952]

Excellent commentary and video. Thanks

[@mrbobinski]

Subscribed! Came here from scishow. Amazing!

[@EverythingScience]

Thanks for the support!

[@michaelsilva7085]

Good one! Thanks for the content.

[@EverythingScience]

Glad you liked it! People's support means so much for us smaller channels!

[@thomasking7594]

I like wolves.

[@EverythingScience]

🐺🐺🐺

[@darkbolt2394]

Who cares

[@iplaywolfquestandroblox1699]

@Thomas King same

[@xxdeathytxx7998]

@@darkbolt2394 me

[@darkbolt2394]

@@xxdeathytxx7998 cool

[@ogbt3345]

Yes the wolves saved Yellowstone from blowing up

[@EverythingScience]

Maybe the super volcano just likes wolves?

[@joel9002]

Very nice video, its so sad not more people has discovered your channel yet :(

[@EverythingScience]

Thanks for the support! I agree it's sad :( but also I've been getting a lot better at editing compared to a few months ago and the channel is comparatively growing much faster now (although still slowly) so I just need to keep improving. Obviosuly I love the channel growing, but I also really like making the videos

[@masoncrouch8872]

Everything Science btw this was a great video. Definitely in my top ten for favorites 😁😁😁

[@cactitiger]

As always great content

[@EverythingScience]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@rebeccahaber8431]

great video as always!

[@EverythingScience]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@matthew24291]

Cool channel definitely deserves more than 5.43k subs

[@EverythingScience]

We agree 😂

[@payneconsultingcoachinginc2536]

Love ecosystem management. nice video explanation thankyou

[@michaelsemore7832]

Interesting as always!

[@EverythingScience]

Glad you think so!

[@ashwiniachu9791]

This one video is an example of how each being is needed for protecting nature..mind blowing content..❤

[@_Amino9]

Nice video!

[@EverythingScience]

Glad you enjoyed it! Hoping to have tons more great content you'll like!

[@ezoticgaming7124]

This dude probably works on this for hours come on guys help him out by dropping a like and sub

[@EverythingScience]

lol, I have no idea how but KZbin tried to mark this as spam (but I approved it). Thanks for the support, it really does mean a lot for us smaller channels!

[@prajaktajoshi6280]

excellent video👍

[@EverythingScience]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@EverythingScience]

Make sure to let us know what you thought of the video and what you want to see next down here in the comments section!

[@DerpWasTaken]

What do you think about talking about the designs of airplanes, like the concord or the f-18

[@EverythingScience]

That could be really cool! We made a video on a lot of the advancements from the first planes to modern airliners, but we didn't talk about the engineering that goes into more specialized planes like those ones. I added it to our script idea list! (Just an fyi, one of the reasons we're increasing our upload frequency is because we actually built up a pretty big backlog of videos to post, so this video wouldn't go up for ~6 weeks if we made it.)

[@Jakubs86]

It would be great to have you cite sources as you introduce facts in your videos and then put links to the sources of information.

[@cindy_le1106]

Can u do a vid about how deep learning works

[@joecole7122]

What do i think. I think liberals in big cities should stop placing wild animals into rural America. Increase hunting season to deal with elk and other similar animals

[@MiamiCoffee2023]

Excellent video! I personally was apart of the restoration process, it was amazing!

[@EverythingScience]

What a small world! Thanks for the great work you did!

[@MiamiCoffee2023]

@@EverythingScience We should communicate if your open to this idea. Have you been to Yellowstone to see or hear these amazing animals?

[@harlemjify]

The TV series was pretty amazing

[@frankmorris4790]

Gee, thanks Chris?

[@reedhartzog5567]

do you have sources you used in this video? ( not trying to discredit the information just want to use it for a school research paper)

[@qush1282]

I've never known about this. very interesting, keep up the good work!

[@EverythingScience]

Glad you liked it!

[@stacy1790]

Keep up the content and you'll explode in no time!

[@EverythingScience]

We can only hope!

[@mariasarli8702]

Great video. It is really interesting what the downstream effects are of a single change. Nature has the balance figured out if humans don’t mess it up.

[@EverythingScience]

Well said!

[@Mr.Ut21]

Hunans messed it up by introducing the a foreign invasive species (grey wolf). All they had to do was sell some hunting permits. Problem solved, and the State would have made billions of dollars in revenue.

[@frankmorris4790]

\You mean "interfere with it don't you? That s what these wolf introductions are.

[@CharlieWest00]

Yesssss this is some good info.

[@EverythingScience]

Glad you liked it!

[@xhcrachar]

I love how the elk was just like sup

[@wahnyapalmer3541]

its the "come back breakfast" for me LOL

[@FallenYT1]

I love wolves love your vids to keep it up 👍 🎉

[@Kkkklllljhhhbhwkwk]

where can I get an ACADEMIC SOURCE to what is been said here plz

[@EverythingScience]

scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C28&q=effects+of+wolves+on+yellowstone&btnG=&oq=effects+of+wolves+on+yel

[@darkone8540]

i liked it and also my teacher used this in class

[@EverythingScience]

I'm glad you liked the video!

[@theanswer__]

hey idk if you will see this in time but im using this video as a source for my science project can i get your name so i can use it i only have 1 day left, this is a very well made video mr everything science

[@monicacamfield474]

That is so cool

[@EverythingScience]

I'm glad you liked it. Hopefully we keep coming out with content you love!

[@user-xu7lc5ml8j]

the video was very informative, however if the narration could be more clearer, it would had been easily understood. had to watch the video as well as read the captions to understand the narration.

[@cheegum6296]

Bravo!

[@EverythingScience]

Thanks!

[@GerardMeijssen]

One thing hunters do not appreciate is that CWD or common wasting disease, is kept to a minimum by predators, wolves.. So who are they to blame except for themselves when this really kicks in.. It is just one of the many diseases wolves minimise the spread of.

[@chrisanderson2748]

Ecology is so friggin cool!

[@vincentrobinson9325]

Amazing how fragile ✌🙂

[@notsogoldexperiencerequiem1333]

I am a fan of wolf's they are amazing creatures i actually thought of how they lived everyday

[@lisdraconis2212]

Like every single creature, from the smallest instect to the biggest bison. Wolfes are important. Nature did not created them for no reason. Yellowstone needs them as much as they need Yellowstone. As said in this short vid, the wolfes keep the ecosystem alive and thriving. They reduce the overpopulation of hebivors as elks, but also smaller carnvores as coyotes and foxes.

[@imagine_2291]

Just wanted to point out that at the start you said 14 wolves then you said that they drugged 31 wolves and put them in Yellowstone. Which one is it?

[@JephWyte]

He's off a little. There were a total of 41 wolves released into the park over three separate events. One in 95, 96 and 97. I forget how many each year but if you want a more thorough video search yellowstone guide training spring 2021. I work in the park and need to keep updated, Mike Phillips and Doug Smith pioneered this project and Doug has an amazing training video here on youtube.

[@imagine_2291]

@@JephWyte Thanks for the information. I was doing a project on this for school at the start of the year :)

[@ronniedodge3299]

Wolves use to be native to the UK there talking about bringing them back

[@ncc_1827]

Wolves look cool!!

[@DougGrinbergs]

2:16 restoration was supposed to start in 1975 but funds only appropriated in 1991. WTH, Congress!

[@kahlil2classy798]

Save the Wolves!!

[@zacharygramlich3959]

As a science teacher and citizen of Arkansas, I'm super confused why the Arkansas Capital building is in this video...

[@MrBig617]

So when can we start hunting these monsters?

[@ajbhuiyan4589]

Wolves help the people

[@frankmorris4790]

Out easr of Doubois there is a long grassy slope that runs half way to Jackson, couple three miles? In the spring when the grass is new, there used to be all manner of goat mommas and their new lambs boundin' all over. No more..... You folk in the WYO have our support,

[@wofswift_13]

Amazing Amazing A M A ZI I N GG

[@EverythingScience]

Thank you Thank you T H AN K Y OU

[@chikushodiz91]

We humans don’t realize plants and animals weren’t just randomly placed where they are placed

[@EverythingScience]

We humans can be a little dumb (or greedy) sometimes...

[@chikushodiz91]

@@EverythingScience that’s saying it lightly we are much worse than that

[@joecole7122]

These wolves were randomly placed by humans.

[@hyenaboy7504]

@@joecole7122 No they weren't. They were reintroduced to the area, they didn't just put a none-native species in there. Wolves existed in the area hundreds of years back, until they were hunted to extinction. Then, a while after that, they reintroduced the wolves since they saw that, without the wolves, the other species would overpopulate.

[@vikram7660]

Interesting

[@EverythingScience]

indeed

[@siddharthapogula6569]

Wow this is the best one yet!

[@EverythingScience]

I'm glad you liked it, you're support really does mean a lot to us smaller KZbinrs!

[@dreamfan6193]

Awwwwwwe I love wolfs

[@lillydickerson4094]

Who else is here because they were assigned this in school?

[@masterflash4125]

These wolfs do not deserve to be hunted. The people that do not SUB to this video are the ones that abuse animals and treat animals cruelly

[@iplaywolfquestandroblox1699]

@Master Flash you have said the vary truth

[@redbird82ify]

Hunting isn't allowed in the park.

[@tommoore2012]

Why would Congress enact anti-wolf acts against the protected species???

[@EverythingScience]

I can't speak to why they want to get rid of these protections specifically, but usually it has to do with corporate interests (like if some company wants to get a government contract to harvest lumber in a nearby area and they don't want to jump through the hurdles required to protect 'protected species').

[@SDM121888]

It’s because the wolf populations are booming. The issue this video seems to ignore is wolves don’t respect human boundaries and are leaving the park. In the areas outside of the park they are causing big problems. If you were a wolf why would you hunt fast and wary elk when there are plentiful herds of easy to catch livestock available, and those silly human even pen them up to make them even easier to catch and eat 🤷🏻‍♂️. A tag system leading to a substantial hunting program is the only way to effectively control their numbers outside the parks and mitigate their negative effects on local people. Everyone loves wolves.....until you have them in your back yard actively trying to kill your dogs and eat your cattle.

[@Antonya944]

@@SDM121888 more anti wolf propaganda

[@MB-kk8px]

Because that allows the oligarchs to buy up and develop the remaining wild places in the US. The endangered species act stands in the way of unregulated greed and that’s why hey hate it. Has nothing to do with proper wildlife management or anything else.

[@MB-kk8px]

@@SDM121888 Maybe humans don’t respect wolf boundaries. Seems to me we’ve taken 95% of the land they used to occupy.....probably more.

[@Grassyknolldallas]

Wolves must be left alone

[@redbird82ify]

When you make value judgements, is it really science?

[@EverythingScience]

To be honest I'm not really sure which part you're referring to as a value judgment. That wolves are good? That an ecosystem in balance is good? I mean I guess I'm valuing those things but it's really the beneficial (and empirically) benefits those things cause that I'm valuing.

[@forsakenofgilead5209]

A local Militia should protect them. I doubt anyone would be willing to go to war over hunting wolves.

[@algonzalez4032]

A brief correction - the moose is a natural prey organism not "predator" as stated in the 1:25 minute of the video. Overall, a very good overview of this keystone species.

[@boblaser7385]

...brief correction, the elk.😉🤣

[@christinawebber9876]

Question. wasn't it Theodore Roosevelt who founded the National Park System?

[@christinawebber9876]

I knew WIlson signed the Act creating the NP Service, so maybe I misunderstood what you said...

[@theramdomchannel8329]

Whenever someone asks what Scar did so wrong that caused the destruction of the pridelands:

[@thecommunistpartyofvooperi9613]

So sad that your most popular video only has only 5,000 views :(

[@EverythingScience]

We've almost quadrupled in size in the last ~2 months, so hopefully that trend continues and soon lots of of our videos are getting 5k likes 😅

[@garyclothier9914]

Wolf FLOW

[@r.a.8503]

Amazing creatures

[@iplaywolfquestandroblox1699]

This is why I love wolves and would hate to see them go extinct and I also want to go to Yellowstone National park one day when it is summer because I live in east Texas and we're really don't like the cold unless some people that also live in east Texas that moved here from a cold place but I did not move to here in east Texas because I was born in east Texas and I'm going to die in east Texas

[@dreamfan6193]

I rlly hate the ppl who to kill wolfs 😡

[@paulorobertodosantos4179]

Great animal

[@shambam112]

The earth knows exactly what it’s doing. Every single atom and molecule has its place and function in the universe. Remove the wrong one and our world is no more

[@alphaarx3055]

Human's don't seem like they belong on this planet

[@dawnwarriorplaysgd148]

Ms Orechs class anyone?

[@b2unoo7]

So in the beggining of the video you say 14 wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, and later on 2:31 there were 31 wolves 🤔 Anyway, 31 is correct.

[@andrer.anderson8070]

Can you make a video about what if wolves were reintroduced to California?

[@EverythingScience]

That's a good idea, I'll add it to my video topic list!

[@RoseNZieg]

there has been signs that wolves, as individuals and as pairs, have moved into that state. i'm sure there will be more coming.

[@caiusKeys]

41 wolves...

[@artsyveii]

Wolves must be a cure-

[@ronhaworth5471]

Created "balance"

[@markjacobson909]

Oops! :-) "The wolves natural predators, in this case the elk, multiplied." Oops. I know you meant prey, that is, prey is what you meant to say at 1:24 in the video. No problem at all. I love this video! I have taught about Wolves and trophic cascades since 2015 or 2016 and used How Wolves Change Rivers KZbin video. If I teach that class again (Computational Modeling and Simulation) with the section on predator/prey models your video will be shown in class and be part of a required assignment to answer specific questions for their ecology segment of the class. Well done, Everything Science! Thanks so much...

[@christinawebber9876]

i caught that too

[@williambeyer4757]

The elks are wolves' natural prey, not predators. Your veracity as a scientist is belied by your choice of words.

[@ericmoser5568]

It's Elk, not elks😅

[@hayleyjohnson5000]

im like involve with wolves I am thinking about getting a wolf!

[@EverythingScience]

It's basically just a big dog 🐕

[@narius_jaden215]

Meanwhile you have people in the world acting like predators and hunters are worthless trash.

[@florincioara]

❤❤❤❤❤❤🙌🙌❤❤😘👋

[@stonegrit]

& don't forget the native Indians 😢 Among them, more than a dozen tribes, such as the Pequot, Mohegan, and Massachusetts, were completely extinct. Between 1800 and 1900, the American Indians lost more than half of their population, and their proportion in the total U.S. population dropped from 10.15% to 0.31%.Mar 2, 2022

[@cheegum6296]

Breakfast come back!!!

[@masterflash4125]

And if they do not like it

[@isabellamelcher5884]

wow wolf

[@blaazeman]

Who else came here from a science/Geography assignment.

[@165Dash]

I had heard this story several times before...initially in a documentary about the importance of beavers in river and water table management. Oddly, I decided to rewatch after re-reading “The Intellectual Roots of the Third Reich” from William L Shirer’s excellent 1959 classic “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”. Why? Because Hitler came to believe that Central Europe has become bloated, corrupt and overpopulated with weaker races, weaker political systems and needed to be “cleansed” through violence. He thought of 1920s Central Europe the way a twisted mind might view pre-wolf-reintroduction Yellowstone. But had it? No! I only mention this because the “upside” of dominance by a predator species as seen here, can, when applied to humans...as in “social Darwinism” result in morally reprehensible outcomes. The bottom line is that the ultimate predator in Yellowstone is the homo-sapien and when he achieves ultimate dominance and bends nature to his will by killing wolves to extinction the ecology and environment collapses. Over-dominant humans are in a sense artificially keeps a bay, over dominance by a single species avoided and balance maintained. Sorry if that comes off as weird. The events of this past week have me worried about how Americans today view living in a heterogeneous country with a liberal democracy.

[@kadidiadiallo8650]

For science I watched this

[@EverythingScience]

For the algorithm, I responded to this

[@ajmc8572]

It’s a great video. But, dude, figure out your intonation. It is all over the place and hard to listen to.

[@EverythingScience]

Thanks for the feedback! This is definitely the part of my videos I'm trying to work on the most. Think I've figured out a better speaking technique/style for some videos I'm working on. Always trying to improve!

[@ajmc8572]

Everything Science nice! I’m really interested to watch it now to see how you went. Was worried you’d fire back at me there, but that’s a classy reply. Stay you!

[@SubspaceTripmine229]

how

[@EverythingScience]

watch the video to find out 🙃

[@SubspaceTripmine229]

i did, i didn't want to learn about a few wolves for school

[@tinahellmuth3731]

Some of your images are wrong. You show moose when you should show elk .

[@EverythingScience]

Back when I made this video the channel was very very small and (on a low budget) I was very limited by what clips I could get the rights to use.

[@qwut9544]

@@EverythingScience I’m going to be honest, that’s a terrible excuse.

[@PatchOfMoss]

@@qwut9544 Not really, being a smaller content creator seriously limits what you have

[@magalyyabhandari3534]

How did wolf become extinct

[@EverythingScience]

Mostly because of hunters (from back before they were protected or when their protection wasn't enforced)

[@redbird82ify]

The gray wolf is definitly not extinct.

[@christophertroy1333]

Only God

[@barfly1984]

It was 34

[@saltyfarms]

Vote yes on 114 for colorado ❤

[@EverythingScience]

Long live the wolves 🐺

[@tsad5611]

You are not representing a tropic cascade correctly

[@TrippWhitney328]

The title should be how wolves both saved and ruined Yellowstone because wolves kill everything but there also controlling some populations some. But a lot of elk and deer in Yellowstone numbers are really dropping because of wolves so it’s both good and bad but in my opinion they shouldn’t really put them back and it’s more bad than good

[@terrybuzzard3068]

why do you think this, from the video it sounds like the positives are much stronger

[@TrippWhitney328]

@@terrybuzzard3068 I think this because a lot of ranchers around Yellowstone in Montana have lost a a lot of cattle and nobody getting elk tags for hunting elk in Montana and Wyoming places like that elk populations are going down so now we got a good thing where certain places offer wolf hunts. And also if you want to really learn more about these watch the Yellowstone 150 documentary the dude on there really talks about them

[@hyenaboy7504]

So, they saved Yellowstone from an ecological standpoint but ruined it from an economical standpoint, is what you’re saying?

[@TrippWhitney328]

@@hyenaboy7504 I’m regretting putting this comment because they do only bad to Yellowstone

[@hyenaboy7504]

@@TrippWhitney328 Not to the ecosystem, they don’t.