Yellowstone Senior Wildlife Biologist, Doug Smith, talks about the past, present, and future of wolf management in Yellowstone National Park. #yellowstone150
I could listen to Doug for hours. Met him years ago when he lead a YAI Field Seminar on wolves and remember how much bird info we got when the birds presented themselves. Love the fact that he paints a broad picture with a wolf emphasis, but considering all the other critters in the landscape.
I LOVE this style video. I feel like I'm sitting down chatting with Doug Smith and I think hearing these stories straight from biologists is incredibly important.
The Wildlife Biologist, Doug Smith representing the science, regarding the life cycle of wolves, is well demonstrated in this video. The world viewing this beautiful presentation by virtual video can be helpful in our digital age. As increasingly crowded Yellowstone Nat. Park is now showing signs of being loved to death by the impact of millions of visitors, aspects of climate change notwithstanding. I hope these virtual videos, presented with the expertise shown with this one, brings a promise of increasing the knowledge about Yellowstone, making a better future for the Park and in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem overall.
Doug is the man and a great speaker. I got to meet him at Wolf Park in Indiana a couple months ago and learned a lot. I’m heading to Yellowstone next week to hopefully see wolves.
“When a wolf looks you in the eye that’s what gets you.” Wow what an honor! Thank you for your resilience and determination. Wildlife very much needs protectors such as you.🌿
Is there any information on the Salmon River wolves in Idaho? I saw a lone member crossing a flat, but my understanding is that the introduced Mckenzies ran them out.
Think about these connections when you vote next November. Irregardless of your leanings on the wolf issue, the common denominator is range conservation, open space, habitat, and keeping federal lands, or better yet, expanding government land holdings for all of us to enjoy!
Why do we see certain people at exact times: saw Doug 2014 in Whitefish at the July 3rd Art Fair & then 2021--ish--Late summer at Crazy Horse...hailed A bunch that day. He was sitting there in the diner going through his camera & I was in front by the window. i thought, "Should I bother him...naa: I'll leave him be." But for the rest of time I ask questions, like why we were put in the same time & space. Great minds think alike & admire & care for nature I suppose.
Since there are hybrid bears out there (like Grandfather the Grolar in Alaka) hypothetically what would result from a pitbull like hulk mated with the largest species of wolf in the world?
There is a hunter on FB & doc media with all kinds of videos lecturing about pro-harvesting of wolves. He uses kinda' scare tactics, like the wolves may attack people & so on.
Hopefully the NPS can understand that as the wolves work trough the ungulate and bison populations as we have seen, and begin to move off and out of NPS lands, they will be viewed by many as a liability because of loss and or potential loss of property, stock, and or investment. The NPS's mind set is understandable because they do not have the same stressors or concerns regarding the reality that the farmer, rancher, herder, and guiding entrepreneur has because there income is guaranteed like clockwork every two weeks, and will get a direct deposit injection of their six figure salary. On the other had if these predators leave NPS boundaries and come on to private property an viewed as a threat, and or on to other public lands where trapping is used as a form of income or recreation, the NPS will have to accept the reality that they are direct competition, and or vied as a commodity. On a personal note, I think the NPS was extremely near sighted to think that the predator population would not eventually get out of balance and wander "out of bounds". The NPS also needs to come to terms that not every one was, or is on board with the reintroduction in to Wyoming, and the large packs of wolves moving out of the "safe zone" and on to public and privately owned lands where hunting, trapping, ranching, herding, and farming are the means of how thousands in the western US have to *compete* to make a living. .
@@hyenaboy7504 Mark Piersall knows Congress eliminated Tribal Treaty Hunting Rights in creating Yellowstone Park. Wolves mostly eat young nursing Elk. Man only hunts in Autumn when cows are not pregnant nor nursing. Man doesn't kill pregnant Elk nor nursing calves nor young skinny yearlings. Man doesn't kill Livestock Guardian Dogs, cattle, goats and sheep. Gray Wolves are well known Man-eaters. There was no containment plan for Gray Wolves when they were released in 1995. Livestock Insurance was zip in 1995, $3 billion in 2023 and expected to exceed $6 billion in 2030. Gray Wolves are a Livestock Insurance scam. Restoring hunters to Yellowstone could control Elk and Moose populations. Wildlife Biologist Doug Smith denies Humans are part of the Wildlife on planet Earth. He overlooked the obvious solution to Ungulate overpopulation in Yellowstone Park, the absence of the Apex Predator Man. His research is all faulty because it overlooks restoring Man's Treaty Hunting Rights as the solution. People's children should be able to pick blackberries by the creek and go fishing at the pond without fear of being killed and eaten by wild animals.
This is nuts… wolfs kill thousands of elk and deer in the park all the time so it’s crucial that the wolfs get managed as well 20 wolfs dying is nothing compared to what the wolfs kill
@@hyenaboy7504 ya so why are we able to manage the deer and elk but not the wolves? Kinda weird to me?? The wolves are doing more damage than anyone will tell you. I have boots on the ground experience not just looking through a screen
@@user-hv5fi6br4s The wolves are doing just as much damage as they have been doing for the last several thousand years. My information comes from various researchers and research projects, who also have "boots on the ground" experience. The reason you're allowed to manage the deer and elk but not the wolves is because A). predator population is ALWAYS lower than prey population, and B). unlike the deer and elk (which have overpopulated since the wolves were first killed off), the wolves aren't causing any damage to the ecosystem.
There's tons of accademic papers and articles online that talk about how predators are VITAL to the ecosystem. I know this may be off topic, but here's a quote from the Ngorongoro Crater Hyena Project regarding how spotted hyenas are vital to their ecosystems: "Spotted hyenas are the ‘health police’ of their ecosystem. They hunt weak prey, that are for example very young, old, or sick, but they can also consume carrion in advanced state of decomposition. Their outstanding immune system and their digestive system are perfectly adapted to feeding on carrion; hyenas can devour animals that succumbed to diseases that can be deadly to other species (including humans) such as anthrax. Their powerful jaws, highly acidic stomach, and enlarged and powerful premolars further enable them to crush and digest even the largest bones, such as those of giraffes and elephants. All this makes spotted hyenas a crucial component of the ecosystem."
@@hyenaboy7504 Man is native. Being the Apex Predator they drove off an inferior nuisance species and competitor for prey. Wolves kill indiscriminately, including many Elk calves and yearlings. Native Americans kept the ecology in balance. The hunted but did not kill baby Elk calves. They did not kill rancher's cattle, sheep and border collies and livestock guardian dogs. Finding your big fluffy Pyrenees livestock guardian dog eaten is a heartbreak. Insurance rates are set based upon five years experience. Grey Wolves roam over 200 miles and claim large ranges. Rancher had problems with coyote, but with Livestock guardian dogs they had little risk. Wolves will gang up and kill big livestock guardian dogs and then go after the cattle. When they file an insurance claim rates for livestock insurance goes up. It is the same way as getting into a car accident, what happens? Your insurance rates go up 80%. How dumb can you be Wild Dog? You have not re-introduced Grey Wolves to Yellowstone Park for ecologic control. The park is only 63 by 59 miles without a fence. You Reintroduced a nuisance species for the benefit of Insurance companies on Long Island as a scheme to defraud ranchers. You are a racketeer but are too unaware to realize it. These Grey Wolves are in Colorado to the south and Michigan to the East. They like eating sheep and cattle just fine. They are not just married to the idea of only eating very old and sick Elk as Wildlife Biologist tell us. Native Americans had hunting rights and kept the ungulate, beaver and other wildlife populations under control for decades. When President Teddy Roosevelt and the drunks in Congress created the Park "Blanket-Butts" as they were pejoratively referred at the time lost their hunting rights and the park lost it's Apex Predator. A predator who could recognize boundaries, respected ranchers cattle, sheep and border collies and livestock guardian dogs. A predator that would never kill a baby calf or even a yearling. Native Americans would only hunt adult ungulates three years old. They would hunt only in the Fall when animals had Summer fat and were not pregnant nor nursing. Grey Wolves kill indiscriminately and are a nuisance species introduced for the purpose of an insurance shakedown. You are a fulcrum for a massive insurance racketeering fraud. We need to restore Native American Tribes' hunting and trapping rights to Yellowstone Park. Then we could save federal tax dollars by reducing the number of Wildlife Biologist who apparently are Second Class citizens unable to comprehend man is both Native Wildlife and the Apex Predator.
@@markpiersall9815 "Wolves kill indiscriminately, including many Elk calves and yearlings." No, they kill to survive. "You have not re-introduced Grey Wolves to Yellowstone Park for ecologic control" So, restoring balance to the ecosystem isn't "ecological control"? "They are not just married to the idea of only eating very old and sick Elk as Wildlife Biologist tell us.": yes, BIOLOGISTS, as in the people who study the animals and are experts in such things. "Grey Wolves kill indiscriminately and are a nuisance species introduced for the purpose of an insurance shakedown. You are a fulcrum for a massive insurance racketeering fraud." No, they are a NATIVE species that belong there. They are not an invasive species like you claim they are. And, again: Restoring balance to the ecosystem is NOT an insurance scam.
I love wolves and I love Yellowstone more than any national park there is... However this gentleman speaking has a very large political bias in this matter. No wolves have been hunted inside the park and that has always been the rule. As far as wolves being hunted outside the park they were not allowed to do so until they were delisted because their populations were at manageable standards. What happens inside the park is Park business what happens outside the park is not Park business. Yes the animals go in and out of the park but that's the cost of having a very large place that animals can go and not be in danger.... They can't be protected everywhere. A lot of wolves were killed by cars, as well as other animals are killed by cars right there in the park. Are Cars banned from the park yet? No.... Why because it's profitable to allow them. The park continues to build gift shops... widen roads... Invite more buses... All in the name of money. The national parks are a business. Until that is addressed I don't want to hear about animals being hunted outside the park as a bad thing.
Depends on what time period you're talking about, because when Yellowstone was first made a National Park many years ago, people were still able to walk in and shoot wildlife indiscriminately, be it predator, prey, or anything else. Modern days there's no hunting in the park but you will get poaching on occasion.
As Doug mentions in the video, it wasn't that wolves were being hunted, but how they were being hunted. The winter of 21-22 the wolf hunting quotas were removed, and regulations were relaxed. After working with the state this past year the quotas are back in place for the 22-23 season.
