Wolves That Influence the World

It was March 21, 2015. On a ridgeline ahead of us, four wolf pups played in the snow as other members of the Junction Butte Pack soaked up the bright morning sun. The individuals before us were among the most well-known wild wolves on the planet - Yellowstone wolves!

As wolf researcher Dave Mech and I watched in fascination, I couldn't help but imagine what it must have been like to be here at Yellowstone twenty years ago today as Steve Fritts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Mike Phillips of the National Park Service swung open the gate to the Crystal Creek enclosure to release wolves back into the wild - a moment in history that would be a turning point for wolves.

Today, Yellowstone National Park is one of the best places on earth to watch wolves in the wild. Viewing its majestic, wide-open landscapes and abundant populations of elk, bison and grizzly bear, I couldn't help but to feel as though I'd slipped back in time to a wild frontier much like that our early explorers and pioneers encountered.

In these past two decades, Yellowstone has become a classroom for the world, where we've learned more of the reality about wolves, in contrast to the myths and misperceptions that our society had been mistaken to believe.

Footage captured by filmmaker Bob Landis taught us that wolves are selective hunters who carefully test for the weakest of prey. Wolf researcher Doug Smith and his colleagues Dan MacNulty and Dan Stahler discovered that when prey abounds, wolves often retain younger members that breed, along with their parents, in the same pack, thus resulting in packs of up to 37 members! These men have also shown that that optimal number of wolves for the greatest hunting success with elk is about 4 and for bison about 9 to 13. These and many other findings from Yellowstone are adding greatly to our knowledge about wolves.

But the most important effect that Yellowstone's wolves have had since 1995 has been the contribution they've made in shifting public opinions about wolves. Countless documentaries, publications and research projects from Yellowstone have inspired us to look differently at wolves for the fascinating, complex creatures they are.

The impact that Yellowstone wolves continue to have goes far beyond the boundaries of the park, and is measured not so much by the success of the wolves themselves... but in the opportunities they present for the world to get to know and understand them.

Rob Schultz is executive director of the International Wolf Center, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wild lands and the human role in their future. To learn more about wolves and the Center's work, visit www.wolf.org?