Welcome to the Nerd Pack

Because this is apparently stick up for wolves day.

Wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone has changed the ecosystem *significantly*.

One remarkable thing that was not predicted that demonstrates how interlinked these things are:

Wolf eat elk.

Elk eat fewer willows.

Willows become healthier.

Number of beavers increase.

Number of songbirds increase.

Overall health of streams increases.

Number of fish increases.

Water table stabilizes.

This is called a “trophic cascade” and we normally see them as bad things. But a positive trophic cascade is an amazing thing, and apparently nobody predicted this one.

What they didn’t predict was that wolf predation would keep elk on the move so they wouldn’t overgraze a specific area.

When the elk overgrazed the willows, they removed the best source of food for beavers during the winter.

Once that stopped happening, the beaver population rebounded and it turns out beavers are pretty good for the entire ecosystem.

Very important for Colorado this year! Vote for wolf reintroduction!

Snow Covered Wolf

Beautiful photo of Nevaeh at @wolf_hollow_ma by Loti Gordon #shoutout #photography #wolfrescue

Grey wolf by Stephen Canino Photography

oh hey for a hot second I forgot I ever made these!!!

not 100% sold on the colors but atm I can’t think of anything better (also its transparent so it will look like a sticker on your blog)

The wolves at Wolf Park Indiana were given paint as a form of enrichment and as a fundraiser to make “original wolf art”. Most of the wolves were happy to step in the paint for a piece of hot dog and make nice paw prints on a page, but this guy decided rolling in it was way more fun.

Picture by C. Love

Reblog the Rebel Artist Punk Wolf to achieve glorious turquoise sideburns.  

Bluebeard!

The wolf is so done with the fox’s bs 😂

Foxes are cat software being run on dog hardware.  Clearly this fox is operating on the Kitten OS.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

This is both amazing and profoundly irritating - the exact writing equivalent of that thing artists do - you know, how they’ll mess up anything that’s on expensive paper and planned in every single detail but get them doodling during a boring lesson and suddenly they’re Michel-bloody-angelo.