Download Chapter 11: Wolves Student notes Chapter 11 takes the wolf as the

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.
The Death of 832F
1. Eight gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park on January 12, 1995.
Environmentalists cheered, ranchers were upset.
2. The alpha female of a famous wolf pack of Yellowstone was legally killed when wolf hunting
outside of park boundaries became legal, reigniting the controversy over wolves.
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.
3. 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. Trophic cascades can alter the biodiversity of an ecosystem.
a. 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. 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.
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. With westward expansion and the elimination of bison, wolves turned to livestock as a
food source. 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.
The puzzle of wolves
Human relationships with wild animals are complicated and dynamic. How do we decide how to interact
with non-humans such as wolves in ways that are environmentally sustainable and fair?
Ethics: Rewilding and Wolves
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. People have different reasons to positively or negatively value wolves.
a. Wolves provide ecosystem services and have symbolic value.
b. Wolves kill livestock and wild game that can be sold or eaten.
2. Wolves are basically a commons resource, so institutions may offer a solution. 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.
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 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. We now
know that what the wolves leave behind fills an important ecological niche.
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.