The return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming - USA, may be helping imperiled grizzly bears to survive by keeping elk herds on the move and preventing them from destroying berries that are a staple food for grizzlies, according to a new study.

 

In the mid-1990s, the U.S. government released fewer than 100 wolves into the park and the wilderness near Salmon, Idaho, to restore an iconic Western animal that had been hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

 

Scientists suspected nearly two decades ago but couldn't say with precision that the reintroduction of an apex predator missing from the larger Yellowstone landscape for 70 years would help restore an ecosystem hobbled by overgrazing by elk, bison and cattle.

 

Research published on Monday in the Journal of Animal Ecology suggests Yellowstone wolves may play a pivotal role if threatened grizzlies are to flourish.

 

Yellowstone grizzlies showed greater quantities of berries in their scat after the wolves' reintroduction, which has thinned and dispersed elk herds and reduced concentrated foraging that can destroy berry bushes, researchers found.