Burleigh McCoy

Okay, instead of just the tallest tree.

And I guess the real question I have is about the creature in between, the elk.

Have elk numbers gone down since the wolves came back?

What's that?

Oh, humans.

Oh, that's a real plot twist.

So it's not true that the elk are just avoiding areas where wolves are.

There are some places perhaps where wolves and elk are coexisting?

All right, so we got cougars and bears and wolves.

It's not just the wolves eating the elk, and that's the end of the story.

These elk just won't quit.

That's what I'm also learning from this story is these elk, when they want to eat trees, they're going to make sure that happens, you know.

Yeah.

Okay.

So any narrative that is simplistic is just not going to work in Yellowstone, especially the one that the wolves affected the elk, which affected the trees, which affected the beavers, which affected the rivers.

It's, again, all too simplistic.

Well, otherwise it'd be like an Agatha Christie-level murder mystery with many people in the drawing room with different weapons.

Isn't it already, though?

So, Burleigh, I have a question.

Those scientists, Bill and Bob, who originally linked wolves to this environmental cascade, were like, it was the wolves.