Far from their unfair stereotype as the villains in a children's story, wolves are key to the survival of their ecosystems. In fact, their very influence is why they're known as a keystone species — an identifier that signifies their importance to the way their environment functions.
"If a keystone is removed, it sets off a chain of events that turns the structure and biodiversity of its habitat into something very different," the Natural Resources Defense Council explains on its website.
And while wolves have long been feared and reviled by humans, they have always been crucial to the health and survival of every species in their ecosystem — from the largest elk to the smallest trout.
This is because wolves control the populations and affect the behavior of other species both directly and indirectly, leading to what's known as a "trophic cascade" of events that can literally reorganize the landscape.
New research has also found that reintroducing wolves would help encourage the growth of native woods, which in turn would sequester planet-warming pollution like carbon dioxide, Popular Mechanics reported. This is because without wolves to control their population, deer populations have skyrocketed, and deer prevent tree saplings from growing to maturity.
The study, published in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence, specified that reintroducing wolves in Scotland — where they were fully eradicated hundreds of years ago — could sequester up to 1 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.
"There is an increasing acknowledgement that the climate and biodiversity crises cannot be managed in isolation," lead study author Dominick Spracklen said in a press release. "We need to look at the potential role of natural processes such as the reintroduction of species to recover our degraded ecosystems and these in turn can deliver co-benefits for climate and nature recovery."
Other countries and states have successfully reintroduced keystone species, from sea otters off the California coast to water buffalo in eastern Europe.
There are also direct economic benefits.
For example, in Yellowstone, the reintroduction of wolves has helped reduce deer populations and alter the behavior of the remaining deer. This has meant, in part, a dramatic reduction in deer-related vehicle collisions. And according to research, this reduction is now saving Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming $10.9 million each year, according to Inside Climate News.
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Definitely 👍 "It's such a remarkable tapestry, nature is, and by removing wolves, we took out some of the strongest threads that hold the tapestry together," explained Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, according to ICN. "And by bringing wolves back, we are reweaving in the integral parts that keep that fabric of nature whole."
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