Today, the National History Museum opened a new exhibit featuring National Geographic photographer Ronan Donovan’s images of the North American wolf population.
“Wolves are a keystone species, meaning that their presence on the landscape is one that has cascading effects,” Donovan explains in a video excerpt from the exhibit.
Donovan is a field biologist-turned-National Geographic photographer who has documented the secret lives of wolves in North America, with an emphasis on the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park. The exhibit is a mix of photographs and video documentary that shows Donovan on his adventures through North America, setting up camera traps. Throughout the video, Donovan tells the story of the wolves he photographs.
“For 70 years, there were no wolves in Yellowstone, and what began to happen was this slow unraveling of the tapestry of the ecosystem,” he explains in the video. “Essentially, elk numbers started to skyrocket. There were thousands of elk that were starving to death through winter because they had already overgrazed the landscape.”
Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone beginning in the 1990s.
Late Tuesday morning, guests slowly trickled into the gallery to take in the striking images.
In one photo, a white-furred wolf with piercing gray eyes peers through the ribcage of a discarded animal carcass, scavenging for more. Another photo shows a bird’s-eye view of a pack of gray wolves investigating grizzly bear tracks in the Yellowstone snow.
Some guests, like Jeanne Wade, came to the exhibit as avid wolf enthusiasts and fans of Donovan’s work.
“Wolves,” she said, “We would love to see one. We came here to the museum to see this exhibit, and we’re also going to see this individual in Thousand Oaks in May. He’s giving a talk, so we’re looking forward to that.”
Other guests stumbled upon the gallery by chance.
“We didn’t know that it was a wolf exhibition,” said Fernando Berdaguer, a physician visiting from Uruguay. “We find it very interesting that [it] really brings up a consciousness about the wolf, needing of care and preservation. I think it’s a very good thing that we can all take a look, have a chance to learn about these beautiful animals. They are endangered, like many other ones.”
According to the National Park Service, some of the greatest threats to the wolf population have been habitat destruction and extermination programs.
Museum guest Quingzhi Wong said he’s been to Yellowstone but has never seen a wolf in the wild.
“I only see the wolves in the zoos,” he said.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition tracks the wolf population in the national park, and reports that approximately 500 wolves are present throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem due to conservation efforts. Donovan worked with scientists back in 2014 helping to reintroduce wolves back into the ecosystem.
“I hope these images pull people in to the lives of wolves to give them a better understanding of the benefits wolves have to a functional ecosystem,” Donovan says in the video documentary, “and draw people into discussions about whether humans and wolves can coexist on the same landscape.”
The exhibit runs until June of next year.