Last updated: July 14, 2025
Place
Discovery Spot: Wild Connections
NPS Photo/G. Lemen
Quick Facts
Amenities
3 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit, Wheelchair Accessible
Discover the interconnectedness of plants and animals. How do plants affect wildlife and how does wildlife affect plants? And what does that have to do with a river?
Wolves are one of the park's apex predators, but not long ago, they were absent from the landscape due to eradication. After being introduced to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, biologists noticed changes not only in elk populations (a primary prey species of the wolf) but in plant life along riverways too. What could lead to changes in willows and aspens post-wolf reintroduction? Without wolves as a predator, elk herds stay and graze in one spot longer and young willows and aspens get eaten before reaching maturity. With wolves on the landscape, elk move more frequently allowing plants to grow.
What evidence of animals can you find around you and what does it mean? Can you figure out what animal passed through? Was it predator or prey? How is it connected to other aspects of this ecosystem?
Wolves are one of the park's apex predators, but not long ago, they were absent from the landscape due to eradication. After being introduced to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, biologists noticed changes not only in elk populations (a primary prey species of the wolf) but in plant life along riverways too. What could lead to changes in willows and aspens post-wolf reintroduction? Without wolves as a predator, elk herds stay and graze in one spot longer and young willows and aspens get eaten before reaching maturity. With wolves on the landscape, elk move more frequently allowing plants to grow.
What evidence of animals can you find around you and what does it mean? Can you figure out what animal passed through? Was it predator or prey? How is it connected to other aspects of this ecosystem?