In 1995, 14 wolves were released into the wild in Yellowstone National Park

https://twitter.com/DrClaytonForre1/status/1561730584329732096

by unpredict • 4 years ago

45 15 4 years ago

bombcar2• 4 years ago

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1561730584329732096.html

An estimated 528 wolves resided in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as of 2015. As of December 2021, there are at least 95 wolves in the park. Eight packs were noted. This count marks a decrease of 23% from 2020 but is close to the previous decade's average end of year count (2010-2019 average = 94.5).

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolves.htm

wongarsu2• 4 years ago

From 1995 to 1997, 41 wild wolves from Canada and northwest Montana were released in Yellowstone

That's more than 14 (digits swapped?), but still not a lot from a genetic health standpoint. Seems like there's some exchange with other populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains, who in turn mate with wolves from Canada, so it might be just fine. But it's a bit weird for the article to even mention the issue, only to then get lost in a tangent about one prevalent mutation.

bombcar2• 4 years ago

I think they started with 14 in '95 and added more.

mrbombastic• 4 years ago

Wasn’t there an article about exactly this topic a few years ago or am I crazy? Feels weird to do a tweet thread about it without even a reference to it.

thangalin• 4 years ago

* https://www.ted.com/talks/george_monbiot_for_more_wonder_rew...

* https://truenaturefoundation.org/research/how-wolves-change-...

* https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/scientists-debun...

* https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/upload/YELLOWSTONE-SCIENCE-24...

iampuero• 4 years ago

Main purpose of these type of tweets are to go viral and get more followers. Hence no citing articles or anything useful like that..

novantadue• 4 years ago

Michael Crichton gave a talk covering these points.

jjtheblunt• 4 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_reintroduction is related, I think, with good biblio

thoughtsimple• 4 years ago

Scientists Debunk Myth About Yellowstone Wolves.

https://news.yahoo.com/scientists-debunk-myth-yellowstone-wo...

wongarsu2• 4 years ago

Within Yellowstone National Park, no hunting of wolves is allowed. Outside the park, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming regulate and manage hunting. Because wolves do not recognize political boundaries and often move between different jurisdictions, some wolves that live within the park for most of the year, but at times move outside the park, are taken in the hunts

So there's a clear evolutionary advantage for wolves that do recognize political boundaries. I wonder if that has long-term effects on wolf-pack territories.

Edit: quote from https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolves.htm, meant to answer to bombcar who mentioned it

elgenie• 4 years ago

That a behavior runs a higher risk of death doesn't mean that it's a evolutionary disadvantage at all, let alone clearly.

You'd have to calculate out the rewards (is letting all of ones cubs starve in order to avoid a 0.01% chance of getting hunted good?), control for any correlated effects (perhaps respecting political boundaries means being overly wary of Yellowstone humans and thus less food), and also the standard worse-is-better proof-of-fitness games involved in sexual competition (a la peacock plumage).

yarg• 4 years ago

There's a significant difference between knowingly and unknowingly engaging in risky behaviour.

jonahbenton• 4 years ago

Every post from whatever this twitter account is...is BS.

riffic• 4 years ago

this could have been a blog post.

dkarl• 4 years ago

Funny to see coyotes referred to as "jackals." They're similar in size and ecological niche, but I thought biologists long ago rejected the idea of grouping coyotes together with the jackal species. Coyotes are more closely related to wolves.

EDIT: And of course saying "deer" instead of "elk." This reads like someone either writing specifically for an audience that doesn't know American wildlife, or someone trying to dodge the plagiarism filter on a term paper.

In 1995, 14 wolves were released into the wild in Yellowstone National Park

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