Wolves reintroduction to Yellowstone

Create a food chain of the 3 organisms involved in the trophic cascade in Yellowstone National Park. Type your answer in the correct order of energy flow and you can seperate each organism with a comma if you can't make an arrow.

What was occurring to the elk population without the existence of the grey wolf?

• The population of elk exploded and they were eating and destroying all of the small bushes and trees.

• The population of elk decreased slowly.

• The population of elk remained the same.

• The popluation of wolves increased tremendously.

With the elimination of the wolves from the ecosystem, how was the population of the producers indirectly affected?

• Since there were less animals feeding, the producers increased.

• The producers decreased because they were getting eaten by all of the elk.

• The population of producers remained the same.

• The producer population is not important.

Predict what would happen to the wolf and elk populations if there was a drought that caused many of the plant species to dry up and die?

• The wolf and elk populations would not change.

• Only the wolf population would decline.

• Both the wolf and elk population would decline.

• Both the wolf and elk population would increase.

Using the graph, why did the elk population go down so dramatically in 1995?

• There was a drought that killed all of the producers.

• The elk got killed off by poachers.

• The population did not decline, it increased.

• That is when the reintroduction of the wolves occured and they started to kill the elk.

About how many elk where there in 1995?

• 18,500

• 13,000

• 19

• 20

About how many elk are there in 2004?

• 15,000

• 10,000

• 5,000

• 10

Using the graph, about how many wolves were there in 2004?

• 100,000

• 75,000

• 75

• 40

What could have caused the big dip in the population of wolves in 2005? (There is no right or wrong answer, just be sure to explain).

What was the fear of the ranchers on the boundaries of the park when the wolves were reintroduced?

• They feared they would over run the park.

• They feared it would be a waste of money.

• They feared the wolves would wander out of the park and kill their livestock.

• The ranchers did not fear anything.