How Do Elk Affect Their Environment in Canada?

Nature has a way of balancing itself unless something big happens, and this is shown in how elk affect their environment in Canada. There has been a reduction in the wolf population. This is an indication that there are more elk.  Since elk love to eat willow and aspen sprouts, then there are fewer trees.  Less trees means trouble for birds and beavers.  Too many elk leads to less trees, beavers, and birds.

Mark Hebblewhite and his colleagues report in Ecology about this cascading effect of diminished wolf population, and how this affects the elk, which in turn affects the environment.  The title of the article is "Human Activity mediates a Trophic Cascade caused by Wolves." The study took place in Alberta, Canada.  Here is an explanation of the cascading effect of the diminished wolf population which explains how elk affect their environment in Canada.

• As the wolf numbers decline, less elk are killed and there are more elk.
• Subsequently, the willow and aspen growth is diminished which affects many other animals.  Included in this list of animals is the beaver.
• The number of active beaver lodges declines which affects the diversity and size of the songbird population.

The situation today is much different. There are almost no beavers where once they were plentiful. Without the trees, the area that was studied is a meadow where sparrows have replaced warblers, the American Redstart in particular, and other songbirds.  

This study, which showed how elk affect their environment in Canada, was one of the first large scale studies that shows the important role of the top predator in the food chain.  

Wolves Keep the Elk in Control

So you are beginning to understand how elk affect their environment in Canada when their numbers are not controlled by wolves. It has been shown that not only do beavers and birds suffer, but also small mammals, fish, insects, amphibians, and plant life. There have now been enough studies that show the trophic failure of an ecosystem when the top member of the food chain is no longer there.  

Steps must be taken to ensure the proper number of this top predator in the mountains to keep the ecosystems balanced. The natural food chain has evolved over centuries and the wolf is at the top. If we want to preserve the wilderness and have it flourish, then the wolf population must be maintained.

Wolves are an endangered species worldwide, and in Canada, they are only protected within the national parks. Most wolves spend the summer in the parks, but during the winter, they will travel to the lower elevations where the elk are. This means they are no longer protected. So, the wolf numbers in the parks are diminishing.

Right now, the wolf populations in Canada are some of the healthiest in the world. So Canada has the opportunity to conserve the different types of wolves in the wild, keep the ecosystems healthy, and preserve the wilderness.    

Balancing the Ecosystem

The balance of nature is a lot more fragile than most people realize, which is made clear by looking at elk and their affect on the environment in Canada.  An ecosystem is an environment where all things, living and non-living, interact and support one another. This can be anything from a small pond to a large expanse of land covering many acres.

If this balance is upset in a large way by the addition of some element, either by disease, disaster, or man, then the whole ecosystem can collapse or have a trophic cascading failure which will lead to many deaths within the ecosystem. Minor changes are usually handled and the environment survives.

Survival depends on the damage cause by the added element and the resiliency of the ecosystem. As elements are added, some species can adapt and evolve to the new conditions and in this way, life has continued on earth for a very long time. We need to prevent these catastrophic events from happening whenever we can.