Monitoring of Wolves

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Hi, everyone. I'm Kathy Thomas, and I'm here to tell you about my participation last year in an ongoing project monitoring wolves in a U.S. national park. The project involves volunteers–researchers, conservationists, environmentalists, and university students of subjects like anthropology, biology, or ecology like me–all working together to monitor the numbers and behavior of the wolves. What attracted me was the impact of the work for the future of the environment in the park. Some volunteers describe the work as fascinating. Others call it useful. But for me, it is vital, even though some people feel climate monitoring should be factored in, too. First, I'll give you some background. Years ago, wolves living in the park were simply seen as predators, and a decision was made to eradicate them. I wish scientists had understood then how this would upset the natural balance of the area. What happened was that by removing the wolves, there was an increase in the numbers of elk, which then fed on young cottonwood trees growing near rivers, causing the trees to die. Before I started on the project, I'd also read a lot about how beavers depended on the roots and branches of the same cottonwood trees to build lodges. They also used the trees to build dams in the water, and I was staggered to discover that these actually irrigated the wetlands. Without these structures, the land quickly became drier. But lessons were learned, and in the mid-1990s, wolves were reintroduced into the park. As a result, the elk left the valleys, and the trees flourished again. The beavers returned, encouraging new ecosystems. Predictably, these included fish, otters, and ducks in the rivers, and mice and rabbits on the land, which provided food for foxes. I hadn't expected there would be such a large variety of birds, though. So it's clear why the wolves need to be monitored, and that's where we volunteers come in. While research takes place in all weather, people might assume it's in summer that most work is done, but we were told it's easiest to study wolves in winter because that's when they move in daylight at lower elevations and also leave tracks, so that's when I went. We were all assigned a particular group of wolves to follow, and when we spotted them, we had to write down the time, the place, the number of individuals in the pack, including cubs, and their prey. It sounds easy, but the wolves were hard to find. Apart from that, and the patience we needed, I couldn't believe the freezing temperatures we had to cope with. Not everyone can be as lucky as I am and see wolves in the wild, but anyone can get involved by becoming a sponsor, which is really worthwhile. There's information on the park website, and there are different levels of involvement, depending on how much you want to give. The highest donation gets you special gifts, including an in-depth report on the project and stunning photographs. Even the smallest gift gets you a colorful poster and fascinating snapshots of the work. Why not get involved? I'm glad I did.