Reasons For The Decline Of Game In The Bighorn Basin Of Wyoming

First published more than a century ago, The Biography of a Grizzly recounts the life of a fictitious bear named Wahb who lived and died in the Greater Yellowstone region. This new edition combines Ernest Thompson Seton’s classic tale and original illustrations with historical and scientific context for Wahb’s story, providing a thorough understanding of the setting, cultural connections, biology, and ecology of Seton’s best-known book. By the time The Biography of a Grizzly was published in 1900, grizzly bears had been hunted out of much of their historical range in North America. The characterization of Wahb, along with Seton’s other anthropomorphic tales of American wildlife, helped to change public perceptions and promote conservation. As editors Jeremy M. Johnston and Charles R. Preston remind us, however, Seton’s approach to writing about animals put him at the center of the “Nature-Faker” controversy of the early twentieth century, when John Burroughs and Theodore Roosevelt, among others, denounced sentimental representations of wildlife. The editors address conservation scientists’ continuing concerns about inaccurate depictions of nature in popular culture. Despite its anthropomorphism, Seton’s paradoxical book imparts a good deal of insightful and accurate natural history, even as its exaggerations shaped early-twentieth-century public opinion on conservation in often counterproductive ways. By complicating Seton’s enthralling tale with scientific observations of grizzly behavior in the wild, Johnston and Preston evaluate the story’s accuracy and bring the story of Yellowstone grizzlies into the present day. Preserving the 1900 edition’s original design and illustrations, Wahb brings new understanding to an American classic, updating the book for current and future generations.

The compilation of large radiocarbon datasets has made it possible to study the archaeological record within the context of millennial scale climatic change. Through the Holocene the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming experienced population growth and decline which correlate with regional changes in climate. This thesis examines if declines in Bighorn Basin population were the result of migration or increased mortality. I compare summed probability distributions (SPD) from surrounding test groups to a custom growth model created from the Bighorn Basin SPD. I hypothesize that if migration is the main cause of population decline then humans left the Bighorn Basin causing a population increase in an adjacent region. If population declines instead are the result of increased mortality regionally due to reduced access to resources, both the Bighorn Basin and surrounding areas are expected to show population declines during the similar time intervals. The SPD comparison showed the majority of fluctuations in Bighorn Basin population were the result of increased mortality, however intermittent periods of migration in surrounding regions were identified. This research has the potential to shed light on how prehistoric peoples in the Bighorn Basin reacted when faced with environmental challenges caused

For more than 300 years, the wolf was North America's most reviled beast, pursued to the brink of extinction throughout the United States. Then, within the last half-century, public opinion changed and the wolf became the symbol of the wilderness, tolerated and even desired over much of its former range. insert. 2 maps.

Historical records and intensive field surveys 1975-77 provided information on the population history, ecology, and current status of wolves (Canis lupus) in Yellowstone National Park and vicinity. Wolves occurred in unknown but seemingly low densities during the latter 1800s in several areas of Yellowstone where they were controlled periodically until 1926. Populations apparently began increasing about 1912, primarily in the northeast, and may have reached nonequilibrium levels of 30-40 animals (postwhelping). Intensive control 1914-26 removed at least 136 wolves, including about 80 pups. During this period Yellowstone wolves characteristically lived in packs of 3-16 members, some of which followed the ungulates in their seasonal migrations. Litters averaging 7.8 were born in late March and April, primarily in the north central sector of the park. Limited evidence suggests that elk (Cervus elaphus) were important food for wolves during all seasons. Wolves either survived the control era or moved in shortly thereafter for singles, pairs, and a pack of four were reported the following decade. Resident wolf packs, however, were eliminated from Yellowstone National Park by the l940s. Large canids have been sighted intermittently to the present, but their identity has not been established. Singles and pairs comprised 89% of 116 "probable" reports over the past 50 years. Speculation about factors limiting the Yellowstone wolf population considers its relative geographic isolation from viable wolf populations and possible genetic problems (including wolf-coyote hybridization) associated with prolonged minimal population status. A transplant of wolves from British Columbia or Alberta, or perhaps Minnesota, is recommended to restore a viable population of this native predator to Yellowstone National Park.

All royalties from sales of this book go to Yellowstone’s wolf recovery project Few animals inspire such a mixture of fear, curiosity, and wonder as the wolf. Highly regarded but often misunderstood, the wolf has as many friends as enemies, and its reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park has sparked both fascination and controversy. Early in Yellowstone’s history, wolves were thought supernaturally evil, and scores were destroyed. Northern Rocky Mountain wolves were native to Yellowstone when the park was established in 1872, but “predator control” led to determined eradication, and by the 1940s they were gone. Amid much fanfare, however, wolves were reintroduced to one of the nation’s oldest national parks in the 1990s. This comprehensive reference documents the prehistory, management, and nature of the Yellowstone wolf. Historian-naturalist Paul Schullery has assembled the voices of explorers, naturalists, park officials, tourists, lawmakers, and modern researchers to tell the story of what may be the most famous wolf population in the world. This unique book includes numerous scientific studies of interest to wolf enthusiasts and scholars of western wildlife issues, conservation, and national parks. In a new afterword, Schullery discusses recent developments in the recovery project.