Yellowstone elk populations have dramatically risen and fallen in recent decades, but researchers are arguing over the relative impact of wolf predation on elk populations.
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Approximately 150–200 with home ranges wholly or partially in the park. As of 2021, 1,063 estimated in greater Yellowstone.
Between 1932 and 1968, the U.S. National Park Service and the state of Montana removed more than 70,000 elk from the Northern Yellowstone herd by killing them or shipping them across the country to areas where they'd been eliminated.
For the next several decades, elk cycled through population booms and collapses along with climate fluctuations; hard winters left the ground littered with hundreds of the carcasses of elk that had starved to death. Then, between 1995 and 1997, wildlife officials reintroduced 41 wolves to Yellowstone.
About 800 moose inhabit the southern part of Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park and surrounding national forests. This largest member of the deer family loves cold weather and frequents marshy meadows and edges of lakes and streams.
Currently, the lion population is estimated to be 18-24 animals. The Yellowstone mountain lions reside throughout the park during the summer, but can be found most often in the northern range of the park where prey is available year-round.
Because of this, they estimate that there are 30-45 cougars living in Yellowstone at any given time, across a number of ages and genders. It is especially interesting to note that the longer a cougar lives in Yellowstone, the more authority it has within the species.