{"id":55,"date":"2007-11-26T11:30:49","date_gmt":"2007-11-25T22:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging_wolves\/"},"modified":"2007-11-26T11:30:49","modified_gmt":"2007-11-25T22:30:49","slug":"treehugging-wolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/","title":{"rendered":"tree-hugging wolves?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font>The university has an e-subscription to the journal <em>Science<\/em>, so each week we get details of the latest issue via e-mail. I was scrolling through one of the July issues when an article&#039;s title caught my eye: <em>Aspens return to Yellowstone, with help from some wolves<\/em>. Really? I thought. What have wolves got to do with trees growing??<\/font><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><font>Wolves used to be locally extinct in the US&#039;s Yellowstone National Park; they were re-introduced in 1995 (in the face of concerns from local farmers with land bordering onto the park, who thought that the wolves would target livestock). By 1995 aspens and other&nbsp;trees like cottonwoods and willows&nbsp;had been rare in the park for around 50 years &#8211; they were being overbrowsed by elk and couldn&#039;t regenerate fast enough to keep up with the grazing pressure. So ecologists were keen to see whether the wolves&#039; return would have an effect on vegetation in the valley. This was a wonderful one-off natural experiment in ecology. Would the wolves be able to kill enough elk (red deer)&nbsp;to give the trees a chance to regenerate? <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font>The answer was yes. The park&#039;s wolves kill an elk (usually one that&#039;s too young, too sick or too old to get away from them) every few days, and as the elk population has dropped the trees have made a comeback.&nbsp;And while&nbsp;there are still a lot of deer in the park, the trees are growing thickly in the riparian zones around waterways. It seems that the deer are nervous now that the wolves have returned &#8211; the thick regrowth makes it hard for them to spot wolves lying in wait, and as a result they&#039;re too nervous to stay feeding there for long. This reinforces the concept that top predators play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem diversity.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">References:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Virginia Morell (2007) Aspens return to Yellowstone, with&nbsp;help from some wolves.&nbsp;<em>Science <\/em><strong>317<\/strong>: 438-439<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The university has an e-subscription to the journal Science, so each week we get details of the latest issue via e-mail. I was scrolling through one of the July issues when an article&#039;s title caught my eye: Aspens return to Yellowstone, with help from some wolves. Really? I thought. What have wolves got to do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,23],"tags":[19,24],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>tree-hugging wolves? : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"tree-hugging wolves? : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The university has an e-subscription to the journal Science, so each week we get details of the latest issue via e-mail. I was scrolling through one of the July issues when an article&#039;s title caught my eye: Aspens return to Yellowstone, with help from some wolves. Really? I thought. What have wolves got to do [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-25T22:30:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AcampbelTeacher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/\",\"name\":\"tree-hugging wolves? : BioBlog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-25T22:30:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-11-25T22:30:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"tree-hugging wolves?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\",\"name\":\"BioBlog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\",\"name\":\"Alison\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AcampbelTeacher\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"tree-hugging wolves? : BioBlog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"tree-hugging wolves? : BioBlog","og_description":"The university has an e-subscription to the journal Science, so each week we get details of the latest issue via e-mail. I was scrolling through one of the July issues when an article&#039;s title caught my eye: Aspens return to Yellowstone, with help from some wolves. Really? I thought. What have wolves got to do [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/","og_site_name":"BioBlog","article_published_time":"2007-11-25T22:30:49+00:00","author":"Alison","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AcampbelTeacher","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alison","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/","name":"tree-hugging wolves? : BioBlog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-11-25T22:30:49+00:00","dateModified":"2007-11-25T22:30:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-NZ","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/11\/treehugging-wolves\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"tree-hugging wolves?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/","name":"BioBlog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-NZ"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea","name":"Alison","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/AcampbelTeacher"],"url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}