Ecosystem and Living Organisms

Gray wolves were once free to roam across Northern America, but this was before people hunted, trapped, and poisoned them. The drastic reduction of the Gray wolves in Northern America was a devastating blow to the ecosystem, but their extinction marked a critical loss to the diversity of the ecosystem. Many scientists agreed that reintroducing the Gray wolves was the best solution to restore the diversity of the ecosystem (Raven, 2009). While this recommendation was adopted some decades later, this scientific method helped improve the situation though with some side effects. Nonetheless, enforcing the endangered species act could also help alleviate the situation by reducing hunting or poising of the Gray wolves.

Man’s action in Northern America such as hunting and poising of wolves led to the significant reduction of Gray wolves. These actions led to unintended impact on the ecosystem with many Gray Wolves become extinct in many places. In any ecosystem, the availability of wild life and vegetation contribute to the ecological balance. This was the case of the Gray wolves before people hunted them down and poised some of them. With the fall in the number of Gray wolves and extinction in some areas, man’s action, though unintended, had caused a devastation impact on the ecological balance of Northern America.

Many scientists agreed the reintroducing of Gray wolves to some selected regions in Northern America, such as Yellowstone, could possibly alleviate the problem. With man’s action contributing to the extinction of Gray Wolves, reintroducing the wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem offered a solution of increasing the population of the wolves. This scientific solution relied on capturing of wolves and reintroducing them to Yellowstone ecosystem where the population was expected to increase over time. This strategy was implemented in 1995, when the U.S Fish and Wildlife introduced captured some Gray wolves in Canada, transported them, and released them in the Yellowstone ecosystem. With the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone, their numbers started to increase significantly.

The reintroduction of the Gray wolves in Yellowstone brought about its share of challenges, which could have been avoided, had the reintroduction program carried out well. Reintroducing gray wolves in Yellowstone was a critical step in stocking the ecosystem with wolves, but this scientist could have planned for it to identify any unintended impact. As mentioned in the case, subsequent increase in the number of wolves brought about reduction of the Coyote population and, therefore, an increase in Coyote prey. In addition, many farmers complained of their farm animals being attacked by Wolves. These attacks created conflicts between the farmers and wildlife around the Yellowstone ecosystem. All these impacts could have been reduced had planning be done with emphasis on the likely impact of wolves in the Yellowstone ecosystem.

Enforcement of the endangered species act would have served as an alternate solution to the reintroduction of the wolves. The U.S Fish and Wildlife can diminish the reduction of wolves by enforcing the endangered species act that lists wolves as endangered species. This method can provide a suitable method of dealing with the problem of the reduced number of wolves in Northern America. Apart from reintroducing wolves, curbing man’s harmful actions could significantly halt a decline in the number of wolves.

In summary, man’s action such as poisoning and hunting of wolves led to the decline in population and extinction in some areas. Reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone decimated the Coyote population, which caused other devastating impacts on farmers. Whereas reintroduction of wolves was a noble scientific method, planning would have been done to negate other negative impacts.