hey brother and I think we can all agree that The Lion King is one of the greatest
films ever made but one scene in particular has always bothered me and no not the weird
possibly incestuous Simba Nala reunion scene it's the scene at the end after
Simba defeats scar he climbs up Pride Rock does this weird magic roar thing and all of
a sudden poof the kingdom just transforms from wasteland back into grassland uh what
why does that happen I mean did the trees and the grass really care about who's in charge just
because there's a regime change nature decides to start growing again like I get that when scar
is in charge he forces overhunting on the land so food becomes scarce but would that really create
a wasteland and yes I get that the movie wants to demonstrate that scar being in charge is bad news
he's going too far and wasteland is a good way to do that but does seem a little over the top could
that really be the outcome well the simple answer is yes and there are very real-world
examples that demonstrate this exact thing allow me to introduce you to the Wolves of Yellowstone
National Park and a phenomenon known as a trophic cascade Yellowstone if you don't know is located
in the upper northwest corner of Wyoming and is home to a huge variety of wildlife and at
the very top of that food chain is the gray wolf yeah take that bears wolves for the win well that
is unless you count man in which case man is at the top of the food chain and sadly for the
Wolves until 1926 man did count and was allowed to hunt whatever and wherever they wanted inside
of Yellowstone National Park the park even encouraged hunters to find and kill wolves
because they were seen as an unwanted predator and by 1926 mission accomplished there were no
wolves left in Yellowstone and this localized extinction of wolves lasted for 70 years but
it didn't take nearly that long for the effects the start happening the immediate impact was at
the elk population skyrocketed and as little as 3 years later like just 1929 reports were filed
that stated the park was in it quote deplorable conditions this is because without the wolves the
elk could roam wherever they please then with their rapidly rising numbers they quickly over
grazed the entire park over grazing is really bad for the ecosystem because it causes all the plants
to die off which is the habitat for a bunch of these smaller animals which then in turn leads
to a bunch of these slightly larger predators to start leaving and dying off like foxes or badgers
or weasels so weirdly removing this one thing that kills other animals actually causes more animals
to die off the wolves are giving more life than they are taking and you think with such an obvious
and immediate impacts people would be calling to reintroduce wolves into the park right away right
well some people did especially after the wolf was added to the endangered species list in 1967
although that was still like 40 years later but it was an uphill battle because remember initially
the park wanted the Wolves gone they were seen as an unwanted and undesirable predator it'd be like
if all of a sudden your Beach was overrun with seals and nobody wanted to come visit any more
than somebody and tourism was like hey I've got an idea why don't we add a few sharks into the
mix that'll get people back into the water right so yeah it's a tough argument especially when as I
said earlier we humans are at the top of the food chain we can kill these outs and fix the problem
right well they tried that too and although they were good at controlling the population it didn't
quite have the restorative effects they expected and ironically people eventually began to complain
that there were too few Elks so they put an end to that and then the population really got out
of control wasn't until 1973 when the Endangered Species Act was passed and obligated us wildlife
and fish to create restoration plans for any animal on the endangered species list including
the gray wolf and boom just like that 22 years later a pack of 14 wolves was released into
Yellowstone in 1995 and once again the effect was almost mediate because well yeah they killed some
of the elk but the real power and change came from how they controlled the elk this is why
humans just killing the elk didn't quite have the restorative properties they expected with
wolves and play the elk were no longer able to roam free they had to start avoiding the areas
where they were most likely to be killed like open spaces next to rivers and valleys on the fringes
of forests and being constantly stressed like that and being forced out of all the best places
to live will also reduce the overall birth rate so bad news if you're an elf but great news if you're
pretty much like anything else because now without all the over grazing all the plants and floor were
able to return in return of the plants and trees comes the animals back that inhabit those areas
and the animals that hunt those animals but here's where it gets especially cool because the Wolves
affect the rivers themselves yeah not just the wildlife but the landscape itself one of the key
trees that was able to return was the willow which is a tree needed for beavers to survive
and survive they did their population increase by over nine times inside the park which is important
because they were then able to create dams on the river this creates marshes and ponds and
stabilizes the riverbanks and creates great homes for like fish and waterfowl and ducks and moose
and otters just by restoring order and returning wolves to the park I mean job frickin awesome or
wolves but anyway getting back to the Lion King the point is yes a single change like forcing
the Lions to hunt not just for themselves but also all the hyenas can cause a massive trophic cascade
a big ripple effect that affects not just the wildlife but also the nature and landscape itself
although honestly you'd think if they over hunted all the grass eaters there'd be a weird abundance
of grass not like a total wasteland area hey who knows these things are very hard to predict and
it very well could be wasteland and anyway that really serves the plot better so other way good
job lion king I had so much fun learning about this if you want to get more detailed into how
the wolves change Yellowstone I will leave links to a bunch of articles and videos that
in the description I highly recommend you check them out they are so interesting and my question
for you and everyone else is who is your favorite character from The Lion King or have you been to
Yellowstone do you have an awesome story I so badly want to go to Yellowstone now it is like
officially on my bucket list tell me your story in the towels section below then that's all god
boy today a man I'll see you another life brother these socks are amazing guys thanks for watching
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