Wolf packs of Jasper National Park are critical to the health of the park.

The wolf is not yet on the “endangered” list but it is a sad commentary on humans that a species has to be thus listed before we acknowledge that it needs help. Jasper’s wolves live dangerous lives: the highway and railway take a heavy toll and trappers and hunters kill them along the park boundaries. Yet the wolf is critical to the health of the park and its species.

What but the wolf's teeth whittled so fine the fleet limbs of the antelope?

– Robinson Jeffers

WOLF Canis lupus : architect of prey species

A splintered leg bone; a carpet of hair on the trampled grass; a rib cage being scavenged by a raven; these are signs of a successful wolf hunt: an indication that Jasper National Park is on the right track towards maintaining a healthy ecosystem for predators and prey.

The wolf is the predator that, over the millennia, has fashioned ungulates into the species we so admire today. It created the long straight legs that speed the elk and deer, molded the strength and power of the moose, created the agility of the bighorn sheep and mountain goats and made woodland caribou specialists in deep snow survival. It is the wolf that eliminates vulnerable individuals and keeps the prey species within the carrying capacity of its habitat. Wilderness is not complete without it.

That is why the US Fish and Wildlife Service introduced thirty-three Canadian wolves to the Yellowstone National Park ecosystem in 1996 to deal with the over-population of elk.

Besides killing many of the 20,000 elk, the wolves also killed half the coyote population. This increased the ground squirrel numbers resulting in more foxes, weasels and birds of prey. The surviving coyotes and an almost exploding population of bald-eagles thrived on carcass

remains left by the wolves.

Inroads into the elk population led to a recovery of aspen and cottonwood trees as the elk became more nervous and mobile. This in turn led to an increase in the beaver population resulting in more beaver ponds providing ideal habitat for waterfowl and other nesting birds. Known as a "trophic cascade", one organism creates cascading effects in a complex ecosystem.

Here in Jasper National Park the large Signal Mountain pack is fulfilling the same role in the Athabasca Valley. This year once again they have new pups, giving cause to hope the wolf population will continue to thrive, keeping a lid on the elk population and leaving enough remains to benefit the many birds, scavengers, small animal species and insects that are part of the rich fabric of this unique place.

So, in your wanderings in the park when you next see evidence of a wolf kill be thankful that this “park manager” has its priorities straight and is keeping the ecosystem healthy.