Miracles of Nature - The Elk and Wolves in Yellowstone
The Yellowstone Park was stripped of it's wolf population long ago, by humans. Park authorites decided that the wolves were going to make it hard for the Elk, and they were also a problem for area ranchers in that their cattle were sometimes killed by wolves.
In any case, they recently decided that the wolves should be re-established in Yellowstone Park, About 5 years ago, a few hundred wolves from Canada were trapped , and then released in Yellowstone. They survived, and soon were a healthy population again in yellowstone Park.
Within a few years, the ELK population increased!!! Thats right, the ELK population increased!! They now have almost none of the diseases that were increasingly a concern for the Yellowstone Park Elk before the wolves returned.
The Wolves are taking the sick ones, the weak ones, the slower ones. The traits of the best animals are surviving, and the traits of the weak are disappearing again after getting a foothold without the presence of a strong and natural predator. Humans are an unnatural predator, using technical advantages [guns], and they take only the big Elk when they go hunting.
There is evidence of wolves leaving pregnant Elk alone. That is more evidence of the wolves living peacefully with the Elk , its not a violent "whatever it takes" type of existence, but rather it is a symbiotic relationship where they help each other and are not actually enemies. The health of one is crucial to the other - imagine if human races could be as supportive to each other as Elk and Wolves!
Why the difference? Why are humans so inept at survival with others, with sharing that would benefit both, even of the same species? I think it is our abandonment of natural law. We turned to religion instead, and religion tells us that nature is anarchy, chaos, violent, and worst of all, unsophisticated.
We have grown to believe natural processes are something to conquer and remove from our world, that humans have a right and a duty to erase nature, and worst of all, that god[s] put nature here for humans to use as they want. Without an understanding and appreciation of evolution, humans cannot have a beneficial relationship with nature, we are left out of the benefits of symbiosis with nature.
What happened with the Wolves and Elk in Yellowstone is not being reported, probably because it might upset religious people and would be testament to the superior ways of nature over any human interventions in our tinkering with nature. To my way of thinking, this is a blockbuster story and should be part of our education.
Reported by Jawg