Resources ≀ Benefits of Wolves

Pando, the world’s largest living organism — and possibly its oldest — is being destroyed by the voracious appetite of mule deer.  According to the authors, “Humans have eliminated predators,” Without wolves prowling the area, deer populations not only explode, but … read more

Effective measures for controlling chronic wasting disease (CWD), a contagious prion disease of cervids, remain elusive. We review theoretic relationships between predation and hostparasite dynamics and describe a mathematical model to evaluate the potential influence of random removal through harvest … read more

Large terrestrial carnivores, e.g. wolves or bears, often play a key ecological role from their position at the apex of trophic systems. Changes to their populations reverberate through ecological communities; consequently their widespread decline in numbers and shrinking distribution due … read more

The decline of top carnivores has released large herbivore populations around the world, incurring socioeconomic costs such as increased animal-vehicle collisions. Attempts to control overabundant deer in the Eastern U.S. have largely failed, and deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) continue to rise … read more

In 1999, Defenders published Places for Wolves: A Blueprint for Restoration and LongTerm Recovery in the Lower 48 States. The publication provided an assessment of the ecological regions that could support wolves and recommendations on policies and strategies to facilitate … read more