How Wolves Changed Yellowstone National Park

When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent nearly 70 years, the most remarkable "trophic cascade" occurred. What is a trophic cascade and how exactly do wolves change rivers? -yt
siftbotsays...

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Saturday, February 15th, 2014 4:15pm PST - promote requested by bareboards2.

ravermansays...

The world has this misguided ideology that nature is about love and peace between creatures.

Predators are killers and therefore bad.... we've made them villains in our stories and we've struggled to have compassion when they are killed off enmass. At best we think of them killing and eating other creatures stoically but not enjoying the murder of it.

It creates a certain dissonance with the public narrative to say... bring in the predators, let them kill, let them eat the herbavores, let them restore balance.

We don't like what it says about ourselves as a creature in nature.

TheGenksays...

Videos like that show ever so often the hubris of us humans to think that wih our limited understanding we can manage an ecosystem better than it has managed itself for billions of years.

Asmosays...

Nature is self regulating, and everything in the video is logical if only we are prepared to think of a world where the ultimate form of husbandry is to let things run their course.

It's about as fucking zen as you can get.

TheFreakjokingly says...

Still, the wolves need to be removed from Yellowstone. Don't forget the monetary impact to ranchers surrounding the park. The financial aspirations of humans need to be put above nature.

Something like, less than 1% of livestock in 3 states surrounding the park has been killed by wolves. Think about the ranchers. They're people and deserve to live free of the negative impact of nature. Just because you live in the domain of wolves and the wild, doesn't mean you should feel the impact of it. Unless it's the humans doing the hunting of course...I mean, that's what living free in the wilderness is all about.

poolcleanersays...

Does that mean that there is an acceptable rate of harmful sociopathic behavior within human systems? So introduce large groups of calculating murderers into populations where the growth of humanity endangers the ecosystem?

ravermansaid:

The world has this misguided ideology that nature is about love and peace between creatures.

Predators are killers and therefore bad.... we've made them villains in our stories and we've struggled to have compassion when they are killed off enmass. At best we think of them killing and eating other creatures stoically but not enjoying the murder of it.

It creates a certain dissonance with the public narrative to say... bring in the predators, let them kill, let them eat the herbavores, let them restore balance.

We don't like what it says about ourselves as a creature in nature.

ravermansays...

Maybe? Maybe that's why we're so fascinated with story lines of vigilantes and non-plussed when a hero kills anyone we can feel comfortable classing as "bad". Dexter, Breaking bad, etc.

Unchecked expansion of any creature is harmful.

We're stuck. We're uniquely social and empathetic (and selfish). We can't just kill off the baddies (but we fantasize about it). We can't prevent our population expanding (without ruthless mass contraceptives / eugenics). And we're part of a growth based system - like China: without enough young people to support the old, our economic system starts creak.

poolcleanersaid:

Does that mean that there is an acceptable rate of harmful sociopathic behavior within human systems? So introduce large groups of calculating murderers into populations where the growth of humanity endangers the ecosystem?

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