By this logic, diseased deer and other animals would be the most likely to be eliminated by wolves.
“Wolves have really been touted as the best type of animal to remove infected deer, because they are cursorial - they chase their prey and they look for the weak ones,” said Ms.
Unless, perhaps, the park’s 10 packs of wolves, which altogether contain about 100 individuals, preyed on and consumed diseased animals that were easier to pick off because of their illness (the disease does not appear to infect wolves). Mad cow in humans causes a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and there was an outbreak among people in the 1990s in Britain from eating tainted meat.Ĭooking does not kill the prions, and experts fear that chronic wasting disease could spread to humans who hunt and consume deer or other animals that are infected with it. The disease is part of a group called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, the most famous of which is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease. The disease has spread across wild cervid populations and is now found in 26 states and several Canadian provinces, as well as South Korea and Scandinavia. It is caused by an abnormal version of a cell protein called a prion, which functions very differently than bacteria or viruses. Can predators potentially be the solution?”Ĭhronic wasting disease, a contagious neurological disease, is so unusual that some experts call it a “ disease from outer space.” First discovered among wild deer in 1981, it leads to deterioration of brain tissue in cervids, mostly deer but also elk, moose and caribou, with symptoms such as listlessness, drooling, staggering, emaciation and death. Geological Survey and the National Park Service. “There is no management tool that is effective” for controlling the disease, said Ellen Brandell, a doctoral student in wildlife ecology at Penn State University who is leading the project in collaboration with the U.S. Experts fear that it could one day jump to humans. If the idea holds, it could mean that wolves have a role to play in limiting the spread of chronic wasting disease, which is infecting deer and similar animals across the country and around the world. Researchers are studying what is known as the predator cleansing effect, which occurs when a predator sustains the health of a prey population by killing the sickest animals. That’s the question for a research project underway in the park, and preliminary results suggest that the answer is yes. Please add your quality photos to this page.Are the wolves of Yellowstone National Park the first line of defense against a terrible disease that preys on herds of wildlife? The material contained in this ablum and its attached pages are a compliation of many sources found on the internet as well as the own personal observations and life experiences of this author. The Rocky Mountains are home to such jems as Montana's Glacier National Park, Canada's Banff, Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park and The Tetons just to name a few. Although many others would disagree there are many who agree with this statement. Numerous mountain ranges combine to produce some of the most incredible mountains in the world. North America's Continental Divide travels north to south through the Rocky Mountains. These pages are not about the mountains where these incredible animals call home. Much has been written about the uncomparable Rocky Mountains. The Rocky Mountains are home to the animals I am familiar with. Young mammals must be quick learners and rely upon instinct to live to an old enough age to pass on their genes and lessons learned to their offspring. Climate, terrain and other factors weigh heavily on each animal and they must learn to mitigate each factor in order to survive. No other place is as harsh as the mountain environment when considering the risks that each animal must take just to survive. A balance of both populations indicates a healthy ecosystem. In the cycle of life predators and prey play supporting roles to each other.
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