https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc Form a opinion on how wolves live in Yellowstone and if they should be protected by the endangered species act. en-us 2018-02-02 19:39:28 UTC 2018-03-13 16:16:40 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Beartoy.png fouste https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/227653866 The wolves should be protected because they are important to balance the ecosystem. With out them there certain prey could over populate and ruin the ecosystem. Wolves can find prey and kill it and whatever they don't eat the bears come and eat it for them. They also should be protected because the elk and moose could over populate if they don't eat enough of them.]]> 2018-02-02 19:43:31 UTC https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/227653866 fouste https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/230178337      A ecosystem is a very delicate thing. In a ecosystem there are multiple things that help it to function, there is a certain amount of prey and predators and when disturbed it can totally throw off the peace of the amazing circle of life. If there becomes to many predators the prey will die out and the will starve. If there becomes to much prey they will over populate and eat to much of their own food and then they will starve and die out.
     This is where carrying capacities come in. A carrying capacity is the amount of predators and prey that a certain ecosystem can, hence the name carry. As I mentioned in the last paragraph there is a certain amount that can be held but when it goes over that the ecosystem is thrown out of wack.
    If there is so many wolves in a area they are going to need food right? so they go and hunt for it they can not find the food they need and they slowly die off because the elk they eat is not finding a sufficient amount of grass to survive. But then spring rolls around and now there is a ton of elk but there is no wolves to eat it so they overpopulate and some have to be put down. 
     This goes to show that if the wolves can't control the elk population then they will disrupt the carrying capacity and that would ruin the ecosystem.  

     ]]> 2018-02-09 19:31:17 UTC https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/230178337 fouste https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/231974868      Over the last 40 years the population of elk and wolves has changed drastically. In Yellowstone the wolves feast mostly on elk. " In Yellowstone, 90% of their winter prey is elk; 10–15% of their summer prey is deer. They also kill bison." You can imagine that when the wolves started to get killed off the elk population went over the carrying capacity, and other predators of elk were not able to keep up with the over population of the elk.
     The elk, willows, and beavers also have a complex relationship. The beavers main diet is eating willow plants and trees on the sides of the banks where they live. The problem is is that when the wolves declined in population they couldn't eat the elk to control there population. This made it to where the elk were so large in number, and ate so much willow plants that the willow plant was so low in number it couldn't support the beavers. The beavers had a hard time living without there main food source and they started declining also. This also goes to show that over the years the populations of organisms in Yellowstone has changed drastically  
     Later in 1995 wolves had been reintroduced into the parks and had gone back to eating the main prey of elk. Over the course of 20 years the amount of elk had dropped from 18,000 to 4,000 since the wolves came back. This shows the impact of predators on prey populations. ]]> 2018-02-15 16:03:04 UTC https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/231974868 fouste https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/234320320      Without wolves deer would be worse off because they would overpopulate and starve to death. Because wolves feast on deer a lot this balances the ecosystem. When they balance the ecosystem this would mean they eat enough deer so that the deer do not overpopulate or become so little that they starve to death.
     Imagine if wolves were no longer in the Yellowstone ecosystem, the deer would overpopulate. And when they gain to many that will result in a shortage of food. With this shortage of food the deer will slowly die off and will have to go back through the long process of reintroduction into the ecosystem. 
This shows that when the system of life is thrown out of order when a certain predator or prey leaves or becomes extinct. This is why it takes both predator and prey to make a successful relationship. ]]> 2018-02-22 16:27:50 UTC https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/234320320 fouste https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/241456851     The relationship between the elk, wolf, and willows is very interesting to study. First off, in the early 1900's the wolves started to die off from different reasons and they became extinct in Yellowstone. Imagine the wolves when they had a large population in Yellowstone. It was stated that the wolves diet was composed of elk up to 75%. They lived in perfect harmony. But as I said the wolves eventually died off in Yellowstone and as you can see the elk population rose with the absence of the wolves. And now with the rise of the elk they had to eat more food right. So that is exactly what they did, In the passage Fish and Wildlife it stated "Elk like the tender new shoots when they start to grow in the spring. ... Some shrubs and trees that elk like in Northern Idaho are elderberry, redstem ceanothus, mountain ash, willow and cedar." With the elk eating the willow the beavers couldn't use it. "In these areas, beavers use willows for construction and for food." Now the elk were over populated, the beavers declining and the wolves were non-existent. And with these patterns the beavers would eventually become extinct and the elk would over populate if they didn't make a solution soon. 
     But there is a solution. In 1995 the Yellowstone staff reintroduced wolves into the park and it solved the overpopulation of elk problem. The wolves were able to hunt the elk to a normal rate and this made it to were the beavers could now use the willows the smaller elk population didn't need anymore. They used the willow to make there homes and eat and that brought there population up.]]> 2018-03-13 15:51:19 UTC https://padlet.com/fouste/n50nijx4s9wc/wish/241456851