Chip Ward has a great piece in the Los Angeles Times today in which he explores how the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park has greatly improved the health of the entire ecosystem.
Hat-tip to Nate.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their indoor cat, B.B. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
There was an interesting piece in the NYT a couple of days ago about how the presence of wolves in the upper midwest allowed, or at least accelerated, the colonization of the northeast by coyotes; apparently the coyotes bred their way across the continent, with wolves and domestic dogs where they couldn’t find compliant conspecifics. Hurray for wild canids!
This is a fantastic piece on the most intricate and amazing effects of the balances that exist in the ecosystems. Thanks Corey for pointing it out.
The documentary “Lords of Nature” which deals with this very subject will be airing on October 3rd on PBS WCNY (http://lordsofnature.org/index.html)