Chapter 11: Wolves
Student notes
Chapter 11 takes the wolf as the object of concern and discusses the controversial programs of
wolf eradication and reintroduction in the United States. Topics covered include the ecological
role of wolves as apex predators that promote biodiversity and functioning ecosystems, the ethics
of wolf reintroduction and “rewilding” of area, stakeholder management of natural resources,
and the social construction of wolves and wilderness.
January 12, 1995, Yellowstone National Park
1. Eight gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park on January 12, 1995.
2. Environmentalists cheered, ranchers were upset.
3. This chapter asks:
a. How did wolves come to be intentionally eliminated and then reintroduced?
b. How did the issue become so controversial and divided?
A Short History of Wolves
1. Wolves are common in North America and Eurasia because they are adaptable to many
types of ecosystems, but some species are endangered.
2. One of the main threats to wolves is human expansion.
a. Wolves are actively hunted because they feed upon domesticated animals.
The social success of wolves
1. Wolves are extremely social animals, and their social interactions are the key to their
reproductive success and survival.
a. Only one female per year has pups, but the entire pack will help raise them.
b. They learn how to play, hunt, defend territory, and raise pups collectively.
The ecological role of the wolf
1. Every ecosystem contains multiple trophic levels, which are basically stratifications of
what organisms eat (e.g., plants produce their own food, but are eaten by herbivores,
which are eaten by carnivores, which may be eaten by other carnivores).
2. The biodiversity of an ecosystem depends on biotic and abiotic factors.
a. biotic – biological, such as competition, predation, parasitism, disease
b. abiotic – non-biological, such as climate, water, wildfires
3. Apex predators, or top carnivores, are those which have no natural predators.
a. Wolves are apex predators
b. Different types of apex predators may coexist in the same ecosystem
4. Biodiversity of an ecosystem can also be affected by processes that alter the trophic
levels in an area
a. bottom-up process – a change in a low trophic level causes cascading changes in
the upper levels. For example, loss of a particular plant may affect populations of
herbivores that depend on that plant for food, which will affect populations of
carnivores that depend on that herbivore for food.
b. top-down process – a change in an upper tropic level causes cascading changes in
the lower levels. For example, the loss of a carnivore (such as an apex predator)
may allow herbivores to proliferate, which may reduce the vegetation.
c. Top-down and bottom up trophic effects reveal the importance of niche, or
ecological role
5. The effects of wolf reintroduction into Yellowstone include greater biodiversity and
ecosystem functioning
a. Elk on the move to avoid predation consume fewer willows.
i. Willow recovery leads to greater beaver populations
ii. More beaver dams lead to greater reptile and amphibian populations
b. More wolf-kill carcasses provide food for other species
i. Scavenger birds such as magpies, ravens, and eagles
ii. Detritus feeders such as beetles
iii. Decomposing carcasses provide soil nutrients
Three centuries of slaughter: Wolf eradication in the United States
1. Wolves roamed most of the United States before Europeans arrived, but by 1958 were
nearly entirely eradicated.
2. The wolf eradication campaigns in North America were vast and successful.
a. Wolf bounties – government pays people who kill wolves
b. Wolf eradication as part of the conquest of indigenous Americans, following the
eradication of bison
c. Especially after the elimination of bison, the wolves fed primarily on livestock
because they were numerous and easy to kill. The eradication campaign escalated
to protect the ranching sector.
3. Eventually, scientists and conservationists began to advocate for wolves.
a. Wolves seen as integral part of ecosystem rather than a threat to ecosystem
functioning.
b. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) both placed restrictions on wolf hunting and the
sale of wolves or wolf products.
c. Environmental programs wanted to conserve and to reintroduce wolves to their
previous ranges, leading to the reintroduction of wolves in areas such as
Yellowstone.
Ethics: Rewilding the Northeast
Do wolves as a species have rights? What about ecosystems? How do we decide which are the
ethical actions for humans to take, and which ones are not?
Wanted: An ecocentric ethic of sustainability
An ethics of sustainability – we have a moral obligation to protect the environment for future
generations.
1. Ecocentrism, as a corrective to anthropocentrism, tries to determine what are the best
decisions to make for the better functioning of ecosystems (including humans) rather than
that of specifically human systems.
2. The ecocentric approach is used in the rewilding movement, which is also based on deep
ecology and conservation biology.
a. Deep ecology tells rewilding advocates what is needed for sustainability (what to
preserve and why)
b. conservation biology tells them what it will take to make it happen.
Rewilding, Part I: The ethical dimension
1. Extinction crises are major losses of biodiversity as compared to the background
extinction rate, or the historical average diversity loss rate.
a. Past extinction crises were caused by non-human processes.
b. Today’s extinction crisis is human-caused. Causes include: habitat
fragmentation, loss of ecological processes, exotic species invasion, pollution, and
climate change.
c. High extinction rates are problematic because adaptability disappears with
diversity, and some losses may never be recovered.
2. Rewilding can help restore ecological and evolutionary processes, promoting
biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
Rewilding, Part II: How to get there from here
1. Conservation biologists argued that in order to restore ecosystem functioning:
a. areas outside of legally set aside terrain would have to become more “wild”
b. top predators would have to be reintroduced and managed in these additional
areas, including places where people live
Wary of the wild: Deep ecology and democracy
1. Deep ecology does not tell us how to manage ecosystems with an ethic of ecocentrism
while still maintaining democratic processes.
a. authority given to science, which is an elite type of knowledge because it is
inaccessible to many
b. However, deciding “between” ecology and democracy is a false dilemma,
meaning that we can have both simultaneously if we use institutions.
Institutions: Stakeholder Management
1. Wolves are resources, but they are indirectly useful for some and directly harmful for
others.
a. Wolves provide ecosystem services and have symbolic value.
b. Wolves kill livestock and wild game that can be sold or eaten.
2. There are more than just proponents and opponents, however, so these diverse
stakeholders have to come together to sort out an agreement.
a. Stakeholders are anyone with a vested interest in how something is managed.
Public participation in natural resource management
1. Natural resource management is the management of environmental conditions, goods,
or services for a variety of goals.
a. Natural resource management has traditionally been top-down, dominated by
government officials and experts using scientific methodology. The lay public
has generally been excluded from assessments and decision-making.
b. Natural resource management generally aims to achieve maximum
sustainable yield for a particular resource, or the greatest amount that can be
harvested sustainably.
2. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was passed in 1970, and makes
natural resource management more participatory by requiring
a. environmental impact statements (EIS) before any government action
b. EIS process includes public input and participation.
Stakeholders in Minnesota wolf conservation
1. Minnesota was allowed to experiment with participatory wolf management. A variety of
stakeholders were invited to meetings, including environmental groups, farming and
hunting groups, and Native American tribes.
a. The group finally reached a consensus, but the state legislature kept the final say
and rejected the proposal.
b. The outcry was sufficient to cause the legislature to back down and implement the
plan in 90 percent of the state.
Evaluating the results
1. Successes included:
a. a plan that is biologically sound, backed by scientists
b. a consensus process that allows people to communicate despite vastly different
interests
2. Critiques included:
a. the compromise did not commit to wolf recovery
b. splitting the state into two management regions is problematic
3. The process was not perfect, but compromise may result in longer term sustainability of
wolf populations since opponents were able to participate in the process as well.
a. This was not the case in Poland, where wolves were repeatedly reintroduced and
hunted by the landowners who were excluded from decision-making.
Social Construction: Of Wolves and Men Masculinity
The ways that we understand and represent wolves and ourselves may help to explain why we
treat them the way that we do.
Man as righteous hunter, wolf as evil hunter
1. Wolves are seen as a thing to be feared, in part because they are from the “wilderness”
and in part because they do kill livestock.
a. But do these two factors explain why the eradication techniques were so
gruesome and harmful to other species as well?
2. Constructions of masculinity explain part of the treatment of the wolves.
a. The gentleman hunter was a symbol of masculinity, a man who thrived in the
wilderness and killed with mercy.
b. The wolf was a symbol of savagery, who hunted in packs and wasted the kill
Wolves save the wilderness, but for whom?
1. Wilderness has been designated primarily for recreation, specifically respite from urban
life. The type of recreation activities possible are more common for middle class men
because they require time and money.
2. More recently, wilderness is preserved more for ecological reasons. Reintroduced
wolves can construct an area as wilderness, and promote a preference for particular types
of activities over others
a. Wildlife viewing as opposed to snowmobiling
b. Access may be restricted to scientists (who are usually white and well-educated)
for research
c. Opponents of wolves therefore may dislike the idea of wolves and wilderness
because it means that there is a space of social exclusion.