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" With a new wolf photographed roaming around near the Grand Canyon National Park recently, seemingly a gray wolf, it&amp;#039;s worth wondering what will happen if he brought friends. This is a pack animal, after all. If there are enough gray wolves to colonize the Grand Canyon, which hasn&amp;#039;t seen the predator since the 1940s, America&amp;#039;s favorite crack community could share the fate of Yellowstone National Park&amp;#039;s ecosystem. The legend of wolves&amp;#039; &amp;quot;trophic cascade&amp;quot; goes like this: In 1926, hunters exterminated wolves from Yellowstone. Shortly thereafter, cottonwoods, aspens, and willows stopped growing beyond small shoots, and animals from birds to fish began to dwindle as well. Nobody could figure out why. Ecologists suspected the newly overpopulated elk were killing with the plants, but trimming the herd did nothing to help. After seventy years of strange eco-issues, fifteen gray wolves were imported from Canada into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 along with 26 more in subsequent years. Then something amazing happened: This apex predator was revealed to be a &amp;quot;keystone species&amp;quot; after setting off a chain reaction. As the story goes, the wolves saved Yellowstone, as we know it. A 2004 Washington Post article documents the &amp;quot;cascade of environmental changes&amp;quot; just nine years after the return of wolves:  Wolves stalk the elk, so elk leave the rivers, where they are vulnerable. The willows, cottonwoods and aspens grow, casting shade that cools the water to temperatures favored by trout. Migratory birds return to roost in the new foliage.  But it does not stop there, said National Park Service wildlife biologist Douglas Smith, leader of the Yellowstone Wolf Project: &amp;quot;In 1996, we had no beaver colonies, and now we have seven, because the beavers can eat the low-hanging willow branches.&amp;quot; And the beavers build dams, creating marshland that &amp;quot;brings back the otters, mink, muskrats and ducks,&amp;quot; he said.  Today, there are around 450 wolves roaming the greater Yellowstone area, and local wildlife is healthier because of it. This story of Yellowstone&amp;#039;s savior wolves is now etched under the elk in the American Museum of Natural History but not without dispute.  Field biologist Arthur Middleton wrote a New York Times article with a major concern: &amp;quot;We now know that elk are tougher, and Yellowstone more complex, than we gave them credit for,&amp;quot; he wrote. &amp;quot;There is a problem with the story: it&amp;#039;s not true.&amp;quot; But let&amp;#039;s assume that second guy is wrong.  For the sake speculating on behalf of our new Grand Canyon wolf, let&amp;#039;s assume this furry friend is indeed the patron saint of eco-balance, like the gray wolves of Yellowstone. If the new wolf is a gray wolf from the northern Rocky Mountains, as its bulk, compact ears, and non-working collar suggest, then he may have in his loins and fangs the power to restore all things broken.  He should start with the cutest threatened animal around: the Mexican spotted owl. The Mexican spotted owl is the young Mara Wilson of the Grand Canyon \u2013 it&amp;#039;s hard to find, cute as a button, and totally against a Mrs. Doubtfire sequel. If the gray wolf has any compassion, it will use its eco-powers to breathe life back into this Grand Canyon species whose population dwindles around 2,106.  Perhaps the wolf will direct its revival powers toward humpback chubs, the Quasimoto of the Colorado River&amp;#039;s endangered singing fish.      The diminishing relict leopard frog could also use a hand. This species has spent the past hundred years dying off and acting as a sad scapegoat for herpes-riddled toads everywhere.   If there is more than one gray wolf running around the Grand Canyon, enough to make sexy time, colonization could have unforeseeable consequences on the local ecosystem. The list of threatened and endangered animals around the canyon is certainly long enough to warrant a helping paw. Hopefully, a wolf-induced trophic cascade will somehow cure the droughts that plague the Colorado River. If the wolves can save the aw owls, scoliosis fish, and freckled frogs while they&amp;#039;re at it, all the better. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a30737/wolves-save-lives-110514/>