Yellowstone - The Wolves are Back | Wildlife Documentary

foreign [Music] [Music] Rocky Mountains lies Yellowstone National Park encompassing nearly 2.2 million Acres [Music] established in 1872 it's the oldest National Park in the United States and the first in the world and it is home to a unique set of fun bison were once the symbol of the vast expanses of the Wild West here they find one of their last strongholds below the surface of the ground is a gigantic magma chamber the park is situated atop the Yellowstone Caldera the largest super volcano i

n North America it was a major habitat for wolves until they were mercilessly exterminated 100 years ago now they are back [Music] what has occurred since their return amounts to a unique success story The Wolves have transformed the entire ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park [Music] Yellowstone got its name from The sulfur-rich Rocks common to the area it remains a largely unspoiled wilderness but originally Yellowstone was not set aside strictly for ecological purposes the park was actually

created as a pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people thus humans created a Scenic Resort an ideal representation of wilderness a place where there was no room for Predators like wolves foreign years ago there was such a thing as a good animal and a bad animal bad animals were predators because they killed very visibly you know wolves cougars Bears coyotes links Wolverine all those animals killed for a living and our mindset then was that this is bad with the establishment of

the national park the fate of the Wolves was sealed so they were bad animals and good animals were the plant eaters not the meat eaters the animals that we wanted to hunt and so we wanted to nurture them grow their numbers to expand our opportunities and we wanted to observe them because they were Majestic like the elk and the deer and the Pronghorn and the Bison these were beautiful animals that ate plants and we wanted to grow them not predators so wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone the

last wolf was killed in 1926 so we went through about a 70-year period with no wolves from time immemorial wolves have been considered bloodthirsty predators enemy of mankind that must be exterminated and that's what happened all over the world Yellowstone Park was no exception extermination of the Wolves had catastrophic effects on the ecological equilibrium of the park the elk population began to grow exponentially in the 1950s and 60s the park Administration tried to control the population gr

owth by hunting and shooting the elk but without success without wolves the elk had no natural enemies and they were literally devouring Yellowstone National Park eating young trees before they could mature the northern Yellowstone elkhard which lives in the northern part of the park was overpopulated right after we had gotten rid of the wolves and cougars and bear numbers had declined this elk population had increased and so the Park Service began controlling elk numbers themselves they killed

thousands of elk over a 30-year period because there were no predators and so that stopped in 1968 because our policy changed and public opinion changed and so the elk population grew again from the late 60s to the early 90s it it grew dramatically this one herd was over 20 000 elk and many people felt that that was too many and that was impacting the environment something had to be done in the 1960s scientists fenced off this area about the size of a football field to allow trees and shrubs to

grow without being eaten by elk the elk were a major attraction of the park and many visitors came to see them but at the same time the growing herds were destroying the northern portion of the park today the fenced-in areas are forests surrounded by Barren steppe in fact all of it down to this high and so this was what Yellowstone looked like for the middle part of the 20th century the extermination of the Wolves was a fatal mistake [Music] bitter fight ensued ultimately the government in Washi

ngton came to a decision between 1995 and 1997 wolves were captured in Canada and reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park the main Technique we use to keep wolves here in Yellowstone was acclimation so we wanted the Wolves to stay in Yellowstone and so to break that homing response we held them in pens for 10 weeks and by and large it worked and a couple wolves took off but most of them stayed within Yellowstone so we got a total of 41 wolves from 1995 to 1997 that we let loose in this area be

hind me the Wolves reclaimed Yellowstone and did what was expected of them they hunted down and prayed on the elk today the park is home to just over 100 wolves and 11 packs foreign Ty Lake pack which makes its home in the center of the National Park led by a white alpha female the pack sets out on the hunt the herd is fast suddenly one of the Wolves finds itself isolated the hunter is now The Hunted a fully grown healthy elk can overpower an isolated wolf a kick from its Hooves can be fatal wit

hout the help of its pack the wolf has no choice but to flee [Music] the Wapiti Lake pack Retreats they are accustomed to hardship only about one 4A and five is successful sometimes they have to go for weeks with nothing to eat it's the middle of May but cold weather has returned to Yellowstone the pack has discovered the remains of an L carcass this gray wolf is number 1091 the white alpha wolf some of these animals wear tracking collars and are known by a number this helps researchers study th

eir behavior there is a strict hierarchy within the pack There are rules about who gets to eat first the youngest has cut in line that might upset the older wolves the youngest wolf hesitates should he relinquish the little food that is left and possibly go hungry he would rather not risk a conflict with the older wolves his submissive demeanor makes it clear that he accepts the rules of the hierarchy thank you and in the end he gets his share [Music] there were no wolves in the park so the elk

had no natural enemies but the wolves have been back for 20 years now have they succeeded where humans failed for so long [Music] wolves started preying on this very large elk population right away and now from 20 000 or more elk we have in this one herd six to seven thousand and we feel that that is more natural that's how many elk there should be and there's cascading effects from having fewer elk those many many elk really impacted the ecosystem and now they're more in balance with the ecosys

tem so you know in short wolves and this carnivore recovery but wolves are kind of the middle of it having a lot of ways transform the system the wolves have done their job well it's really an ideal success story but the white alpha wolf along with all the other wolves that have been roaming Yellowstone for the past 20 years have actually achieved something even more significant a Natural Balance yes they kill elk but they also promote life Coyotes play an important role here without wolves ther

e was a huge coyote population they were the Park's most successful predators and although coyotes don't kill elk they hunt down all the animals that are underneath them on the food chain prey on Gophers Chipmunks squirrels mice and newborn deer since returning to the park wolves have been chasing their competitors the number of coyotes has decreased considerably the beneficiaries of this development are the North American pronghorn their population has been growing since the Wolves came back an

d began decimating the coyotes newborn Pronghorn are a favorite prey of coyotes so fewer coyotes means more pronghorns survive wolves don't bother them thank you and the small mammals like Gophers Chipmunks and ground squirrels can relax a bit too [Music] which is good news for foxes because with fewer coyotes there's more for them to eat foreign there are more foxes in Yellowstone now too because fewer coyotes means less competition and the Majestic bald eagle is also seen more often about 10 y

ears ago their number was still decreasing their primary source of nutrition the cutthroat trout was in danger of dying out but the bald eagles found alternatives now that there were fewer coyotes they were able to feed on squirrels mice and weasels but can the Wolves reintroduction really be held responsible for the overall impact on the entire ecosystem of the national park was it a chain reaction from the direct prey the Elks to the coyotes foxes and even down to the mice within a few years o

f their reintroduction the number of wolves had increased to 170. for years now the number of Walls has remained steady around 100. but our 100 Wolves at the top of the food chain enough to affect such tremendous changes [Music] the truth of what has happened in Yellowstone since the Wolves return is more complex they didn't just impact the fauna came back Aspens Willows and cottonwoods began to grow again especially in the northern range of the park just a few years after the walls were reintro

duced scientists from Oregon State University already began noticing astounding changes in the Park's Flora now 20 years after the Wolves returned these Aspens reveal the true miracle that has occurred in Yellowstone National Park we can see the browsing marks for example this stem here has been bitten off on the top and if we look down on this plant we might see other evidence of this here's another another place where it was bitten off and this is the an example of what was uh suppressing the

growth of young Aspen for most of the 20th century in in Yellowstone Park amazing things have happened in the park for decades All That Grew here were waste High shrubs now there are woods and little forests and behind me we can see a stand of tall young Aspen that are now grown into young trees these were not here 20 years ago if you were to come to this spot 20 years ago in 1997 when the Wolves were being introduced there were no young Aspen here taller than about waist height that was they we

re just continually being suppressed and there were some trees some Aspen trees such as this dead snag here but they were dying out sure enough in the northern area of the park all that can be found growing are 100 to 150 year old Aspen or small shrubs the trees are never more than five to six meters tall and are 10 to 20 years old at the most there's nothing in between scientists determine the exact age of the trees to learn why these gaps exist every year they record the growth of Aspen at mor

e than 100 locations throughout the park with amazing results so it's by counting back these growth nodes that we were able to find out when did these tall Aspen first start growing in this stand and found that it was in the early 2000s that this first started happening and then we would look at the base of them and we would see oh they used to be suppressed but then they got they got released from that it's not a complete turn off of browsing but enough that they were able to get a few years wi

thout getting chopped off and then they got tall enough that they could continue this photo was taken in 2004. Ten Years Later thick undergrowth has reappeared for the first time in decades this photo was also taken in 2004. today these willow bushes are two meters tall at first glance two meters is not very impressive but this is the first time in a century that Aspen and Willow are growing in Yellowstone at all the ecosystem of the National Park is changing [Music] is it because of the Wolves

the elk can it be true that these few wolves have had such a tremendous impact [Music] in Lamar Valley on the Northern range of the park a wolf is preying on an elk the elk seems to have escaped into the middle of the river [Music] but wolves are patient and perseverant Hunters they track their prey they know exactly when the animal is tired or whether it has been injured [Music] when a wolf prays alone the hunt can stretch on for hours sometimes even days the elk is injured but the wolf holds b

ack it will probably try again within a few days Lamar Valley is home to the Lamar Canyon wolf pack the alpha female is finishing off a bison and reacts to the howling of the rest of the pack the alpha wolf wears a tracking collar identifying him as wolf 949 his mate is pregnant soon he will have to provide food for the female wolf and their young so the female is already teaching him to regurgitate food he has eaten so he can feed her and their young later [Music] foreign [Music] but there is c

ompetition with a neighboring pack conflicts flare up repeatedly over the course of the winter [Music] these interest species conflicts are the most common cause of death for wolves in the National Park the alpha female of the Lamar Canyon pack is eyeing a young buck deer it is not retreating but is defending its territory her son observes his mother's technique from a safe distance the buck doesn't seem to be intimidated the young wolf is still too inexperienced to be of any help to its mother

finally she decides to attack but the buck fights back no lunch today [Music] wolves are not always successful when they go hunting the number of elk has decreased significantly [Music] the wolves are transforming the park are they re-establishing a Natural Balance that has been Disturbed for an entire century [Music] female of the Lamar Canyon pack appears emaciated the young woe she gave birth to in the spring have not survived they may have succumbed to illness or been killed by other predato

rs and prey is in short supply the elk are still up in the high pastures and won't return to the valleys until late autumn in the first years after they were reintroduced the Wolves found plenty of prey now that the elk population has decreased so drastically they have to make do with less wolves don't usually prey on bison this one probably died from an injury alpha wolf 949 found it in the Lamar Valley but the neighboring pact the Lamar wolves have been competing with all winter has also picke

d up the scent a single wolf has no chance against so many opponents they would kill him [Music] foreign the pack has discovered wolf 949 he seems weak when the pack approaches he barely manages to escape in time [Music] Doug Smith the leading wolf expert at the National Park is spending the summer with other scientists and researchers they want to determine the impact the wolves are having on the entire ecosystem of Yellowstone whether the walls are transforming not only the fauna but also the

Flora of the park scientists have been observing and measuring this Aspen Force since 2001. they measure the growth from this Mark each year you can see there's lots of suckers these are the heights right here everything was browsed right I mean one member of the team is Eric Larson from the University of Wisconsin back in 1999 he was commissioned by the National Park to investigate why the Aspen were disappearing and the important thing about these Aspen is none of these were here 20 years ago

when we reintroduced wolves either these were browsed down by elk or they've since grown in so we're out here today to measure these Aspen and try and figure out what has happened why has a thick forest appeared here over the past 20 years after decades in which nothing of the sort happened at first the national park researchers were puzzled suddenly Aspen trees were growing where there had previously been only bushes and shrubs from about 1700 until about 1930 there was continuous Aspen regener

ation on the Northern range and then in 1930 something changed and Aspen stopped reaching tree size they were only in shrub size and the current on this one is eight centimeters what happened back then to find out they extract samples from the older trees the diameter gives an indication of the age of the younger trees the question I asked was what changed in the 1920s and the last recorded wolf killed in Yellowstone Park was in 1926. so Aspen stopped regenerating at the same time that the last

wolf was killed in the park does that mean the scientists have actually found proof that the trees stopped growing when the last wolves in the National Park were killed sure or was something else responsible for example a forest fire or climate change you want to have it right in the level thing what really happened in 1926 it's called the trophic Cascade the reintroduction of this top predator the wolf led to a reduction in the numbers and in the browsing pressure and in the behaviors of the el

k population which in turn led to the Aspen to be able to escape browsing and grow into tree size I guess that's kind of true because this trophy Cascade is one of the most fascinating scientific discoveries ever made the Wolves were missing from the ecosystem their reintroduction caused a chain reaction for the last one we're not even bothering well certainly wolves have had a lot to do with the recovery of this Aspen but they're not the only agent you know cougars were gone and now they're bac

k too uh bears were here but their population was much reduced nature is always more complex than we think but in this particular case a key player has been wolves so was the missing Factor over those decades the Wolves at the top of the food chain Yellowstone River carries a massive amount of water in fact the National Park is one of the most important water reservoirs in the Northwestern United States from Raging Rivers to trickling Creeks these waterways are the lifeline for agriculture and l

ivestock farming outside the park as well and in Yellowstone itself they are the basis for a highly complex ecosystem and within this ecosystem Mother Nature's Mighty Landscape Architects play a decisive role beavers foreign primarily on Willows and Aspen they also use these trees to build their dams turning the smaller streams into ponds [Music] [Music] during the summer months they are busy eating then in the fall they repair their dams using mud and branches making their Lodge in the center o

f the dam and willow bushes Thrive everywhere since the woofer introduction and the decrease in Elk in this area and and then the corresponding decrease in the amount of Willows that are being eaten by the elk the Willis have been able to grow tall beavers have been able to move in and utilize them to to build these dams they're also using some of the recovering Aspen and so we're starting to see a restoration of this ecological cycle that will lead to greater expansions of these Wetland complex

es and also will relieve some of the restrictions of the streams they're narrow the streams will widen and begin to connect with with the banks around them and all this is really good for many animal species and and birds such as ducks like to use the ponds small songbirds like to nest in in the willow bushes many animals eat the willow bushes many insects thrive in this habitat these Wetland habitats are biotopes rich in diversity [Music] the primary food sources for beavers of course are the t

hriving willow bushes is that the source of the chain reaction wolves decimated the elk population fewer elk means fewer Willow shrubs being devoured for centuries beavers were rare in Yellowstone Park now they are back and they are providing a new habitat for many other species [Music] among the beneficiaries of this development are the great blue heron thank you [Music] others simply enjoy a chance to cool off [Music] or a shortcut it's late August in Lamar Valley where soda Butte Creek flows

into the Lamar River still very weak alpha wolf 949 is crossing a meadow he can hardly stay on his feet but doesn't appear to be injured twice already there have been outbreaks of a virus in the national park and many of the Wolves became ill and died [Music] is he sick [Music] he drags himself onward until dusk Falls [Music] then he gives up [Music] for 10 more days wolf 949 will fight death foreign ly shows no more signs of Life National Park Rangers collect his body before other animals and b

irds can get to it if he is carrying a disease any animals that eat his carcass could become infective as well wolf 949 died near a road so it was easy to find him visitors and park rangers spent the past several days here observing his sad life and death struggle bites foreign this is 9 49 he's the alpha male of the Lamar Canyon pack he's six years old he was born east of the park uh in the Beartooth attack he and three other Beartooth wolves came over about a year and a half ago and joined the

local pack and we don't know the cause of death he's been here for the last 13 days he has not been able to move or get up he can lift his head he didn't really seem to be in distress or pain the crew will take him to a lab in Bozeman for full analysis we think as his younger brother will take over as the alpha male so it'll be a pack of one adult male one one adult male and then two adult females so it would be a small pack but that's a functioning pack a few weeks later the lab test confirmed

that wolf 949 was infected with canine distemper virus autumn [Music] is descending slowly over Yellowstone National Park the white alpha wolf from the Wapiti Lake pack has been spotted again in Hayden Valley in the heart of the park [Music] a few days after that the pack LED by the white wolf reveals what they have been hiding in the dense forest for the past few months newborn wolves three months old begin tentatively exploring their surroundings [Music] [Applause] [Music] all the baby wolves

born in the Wapiti Lake pack have survived [Music] was it really the wolves that were responsible for the trophy Cascade in Yellowstone National Park did they set the chain reaction in motion that gave beavers more to eat so they created more Wetlands that in turn provided a habitat for other species twenty years ago wolves were brought in primarily to reduce the elk population no one anticipated that their return would result in more forests no one saw this trophic Cascade coming it really was

n't thought about a lot so you know we made predictions of what wolves were going to do what would they would do the elk population the Bison population the deer population what they were going to do livestock when they left the park how much livestock there to take a year so there's a lot of predictions there really was not any kind of prediction on what it would do the Woody vegetation or even the grasslands in fact some very key wolf biologists have been critical of our research and trophic C

ascades because they have said this understanding of what wolves do to ecosystems is incomplete or misunderstood yet this has been one of the hottest scientific topics since wolves have returned and it was almost not studied beforehand are not really very good predators still they were able to greatly reduce the elk population allowing the vegetation to recover and many areas of the park fear might play an important role in this equation even if wolves don't always kill they still drive their pr

ey away many animals avoid areas where they risk running into their enemies the landscape of fear that term means when you have an aspen Forest like this one which is very thick it's very hard to see into it changes the foraging behavior of of the herbivores because they're hesitant to enter this area because they can be ambushed very easily by bears or by wolves and and what I have seen as I've measured Aspen is what happens is if you get a core of larger trees in the center and then you get sm

aller trees out on the edge what the elk will do is they'll come and they'll nibble on the edge and they'll they'll forage there but they won't go into the center of the stand now this actually helps the stand recover the real rulers of Yellowstone National Park are the grizzly bears apart from the Wolves Grizzlies are the most powerful Predators here even the Wolves back down when one of the 1500 pound Giants shows up [Music] the only enemy the Grizzlies have to fear is humans one-year-old wall

s from the Wapiti Lake pack are enjoying a meal when they are suddenly interrupted a grisly appears the young wolves run away immediately one of the young wolves is a bit audacious but the grizzly quickly makes it clear to him who's the Boss it's smarter to back down and keep a safe distance meanwhile the grizzly helps himself to the Wolves prey but even the Grizzlies have competition in Hayden Valley a bear comes across a dead elk stag [Music] but he is not alone a much larger Grizzly has also

picked up the scent knowing he is in the weaker position the younger bear submits challenging the older bear to a fight would be foolish a fatal faux pas [Music] [Music] foreign the Grizzlies enjoy an abundance of food sources here until a few years ago that included North American cutthroat trout before they were displaced by the non-indigenous lake trout in the vicinity of Yellowstone Lake it is becoming more and more difficult for them to survive on the few remaining Cutthroats lake trout sta

y in the lake and only rarely Venture Upstream to spawn the Grizzlies have often been wrongly blamed for the decrease in the elk population hunger sometimes drove the Bears to kill elk calves to replace the trout that were no longer available but there aren't enough Bears around Yellowstone Lake to be responsible for the long-term decrease in the elk population besides they are still able to catch fish from time to time as the old population decreases scientists hope the berry shrubs will recove

r they provide an ideal source of nutrition for Grizzlies and black bears who need to store a lot of fat for their winter hibernation period but at 8 000 feet the high altitude of the national park means there will probably never be enough shrubs and bushes here luckily there are alternative options in the Autumn the black bears climb ever higher the pine cones of the white bark Pines have a high fat content so the Bears make use of their climbing skills to get at them and they let the Grizzlies

have the cones that fall to the ground the pine cones are packed full of calories so they are the best Yellowstone has to offer to help the black bears and Grizzlies store up the fat they need to survive The Long Winter foreign Grizzlies will eat virtually anything when one source of nutrition is not available they will simply turn to something else for example maggots and grubs and bowls and other rodents and baby bears know that even grass can be tasty so if there are no elk around Bears will

always find something else to eat [Music] foreign and occasionally the residents of Yellowstone form unusual alliances for example when wolves and Grizzlies start the day together this harmonious cooperation is a partnership of convenience first one of them will be the better Predator than the other still it's always advisable to tread cautiously friendship ends when they find themselves pursuing the same prey now it doesn't matter who is bigger or stronger but who is more stubborn the Bison ju

st stands by and watches them fight [Music] the two Rivals size each other up the grizzly is becoming more aggressive but his showing off doesn't impress anyone sometimes perseverance is the best method since the Wolves return to Yellowstone 20 years ago they have worked wonders they reduced the elk population from twenty thousand to about six thousand but no one expected that their impact on the ecosystem in the Northern areas of the park would be so far-reaching as we look to the Future we're

expecting that Yellowstone is never really going to return to conditions that it had in the past but we're actually seeing Aspen stands pop up in places with with young Aspen where we didn't even know they were there because they were buried in the bushes and now they're starting to emerge so I think in general we're going to see an increase in in the growth of these Woody plants is we're entering into a time now of moderate browsing pressure compared to what we used to have which was very high

browsing pressure that was suppressing them almost uniformly and although other factors are affecting the elk besides wolves it seems clear that this would not have happened without the wolf for introduction [Music] late September the young Wolves of the Wapiti Lake pack have already grown considerably the white alpha female is preparing them to survive the tough winter in Yellowstone National Park [Music] there are more than 20 wolves in their pack whether the group stays that big depends on wh

ether they all find enough food and don't have to engage in hierarchy struggles [Music] there Rendezvous site is in Hayden Valley on the bank of the Yellowstone River the white wolf is the Undisputed leader and focal point of the pack [Music] flowers the search for food governs their daily routine they hunt for prey every day so they can all survive the hard winter months then in early October the first snow begins to fall [Music] for 70 years there were no wolves in Yellowstone their exterminat

ion destroyed the entire ecosystem of the national park now that wolves have been reintroduced the original Natural Balance is being restored it's a miracle of nature foreign [Music]