Predators in National Parks Are Helping With Ecosystem Balance — but There’s an Overlooked Problem

New study attempts to explore the impact of grizzly bears, wolves, etc., on ecosystem recovery.

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A man photographing a bear in North America. (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Mark Newman)

Larger carnivores are treasured species of the environment. They not only balance the food web but also create revenue for national parks. The restoration of gray wolves at Yellowstone National Park has set a benchmark in wildlife conservation. The recovery of pumas, grizzly bears, and black bears across the Western United States has been hailed as a success story in wildlife management. While these conservation efforts are remarkable, scientists have sought to understand the impact that these large carnivores can have on the overall recovery of the ecosystem. A new study published in the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics analyzed the link between these larger animals and ecosystem recovery.

Grizzly bear roaming in Yellowstone National Park (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Bryant Aardema)

The research claimed that it's hard to derive a clear cause-and-effect relationship between the two entities. It's challenging to correlate a large carnivore's recovery to that of a plant species. That's because many other activities occur simultaneously in the wild. Humans also constantly contribute to the changing environment of the wildlife through hunting, deforestation, construction, and more. Stephanie Adams, the director of the wildlife program at the National Parks Conservation Association, explained how multiple factors shape the role of large carnivores in restoring the ecosystem. “Restoring large carnivores on landscapes can be incredibly complicated and as unique as the species themselves, but greatly beneficial for healthy park wildlife and lands,” she said.

Grizzly bear in Yellowstone (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Raquel Lonas)

“Decades of research show that the role of large carnivores such as grizzly bears or pumas is shaped by numerous factors and looks different in different places," Adams added. These carnivores can also be equally disruptive. The expansion of their habitat can pose a threat to people living nearby and livestock. There's a heated debate over whether the trespassing of these apex predators into the lands of humans should be tolerated or not. The study highlighted that ranchers have faced the harsh side of wildlife, losing a large amount of livestock to wolves and grizzlies. Hunters have been blaming wolves for the decline of Elk herds, while residents of towns like Jackson and Wyoming have had to deal with bear infiltration, attracted by bird feeders and garbage.

A wolf roaming in the valley of Yellowstone National Park (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Mtnmichelle)

The study was meant to focus on the positive impact of these apex predators on the ecosystem, but it can't be studied without looking at the overall interaction. The connection between the species and the ecosystem is quite complex, and it's difficult to derive a simple explanation of their impact. Christopher Wilmers, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of California and the study lead, explored about 17 previously published studies that detailed the impact of large carnivore recoveries in North America. “We've learned a lot about their ecological impacts over the last 50 years as ecologists have become more interested and developed more understanding about how predators impact ecosystems," he said, as per National Parks Traveler.

A man is taking a photograph of grizzly bears. (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Paul Souders)

The impact is especially seen in areas where predators help control the population of herbivore animals, eventually reducing the destruction of healthy vegetation. These areas are rich in biodiversity, with plants growing in creeks and more fish migrating to the nearby freshwater ponds. “Those are all things that I think we can probably agree on will benefit human health,” Wilmers added. The restoration of Yellowstone's wolves has reportedly prompted a tropical cascade, a chain reaction caused by the removal or introduction of a species in the food chain. But the latest study believes that the connection has been oversimplified by the media. "If the goal of large carnivore restoration in other parts of the world is to initiate a trophic cascade, it’s going to be a lot more complicated than what people might expect," Wilmers said.

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