Lone wolves no more - roughly 500 wolves inhabit Yellowstone today, following their reintroduction to the park. | National Geographic TV

The story of wolves in Yellowstone is a remarkable tale of reintroduction and ecosystem recovery. In the mid-1900s, wolves were eradicated from Yellowstone National Park due to hunting and habitat loss. Without wolves, the park’s ecosystem suffered, with elk populations growing unchecked, leading to overgrazing and damage to plant life. In 1995, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, and their presence triggered a phenomenon known as a “trophic cascade.” With wolves hunting elk, the elk popula

Was it a good idea to reintroduce wolves into Yellowstone National Park? 🐺 After being wiped out nearly 70 years earlier, wolves were brought back, and the impact was dramatic. Elk populations dropped, allowing plants like willow and aspen to thrive again. That led to the return of beavers, songbirds, and fish habitats: a textbook case of a trophic cascade, where changes at the top of the food chain ripple through the entire ecosystem. But ecologists point out that wolves weren’t the only preda