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We report on a 5-year comparative study of wolf (Canis lupus)-elk (Cervus elaphus) dynamics on an elk herd in the headwaters of the Madison River within Yellowstone National Park and the lower Madison elk herd that winters 40 km downriver outside the Park. Although numerous authors are investigating indirect effects of wolf recovery, the most fundamental ecological impact of the Greater Yellowstone Area wolf reintroduction, the effects of wolf predation on ungulate populations, remains unclear.
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