Gray Wolves In Yellowstone Essays - Yellowstone, Canid Hybrids

Gray Wolves In Yellowstone The reintroduction of Gray Wolves into Yellowstone has had many positive affects such as controlling the populations of large game and taking out the small week stupid ones. Some farmers complain about them killing cattle but who cares what they think. The gray wolf, also called the timber wolf, is the largest of about 41 wild species within the dog family, Canidae, of the order Carnivora. All living wolves are considered a single species, Canis lupus. There are 32 recognized subspecies of the gray wolf. Wolf size varies. Adults range from about five to six and a half feet from nose to tip of tail, from 26 to 36 inches high at the shoulders, and weigh from 40 to 175 pounds. Gray wolves aren't necessarily gray but grizzled gray is the most common color they can also be white, black or red. Wolves are distinguished from dogs by characteristics of the skull. At one time the wolf lived throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere. Most wolf populations are in Canada and Alaska, where they are relatively stable. Of the lower 48 only Minnesota has a wolf population large enough to maintain itself. Wolves live in packs. The Forestry Service reintroduced gray wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains as well as Yellowstone National Park in an attempt to re-establish the species after an absence of more than 60 years. Gray wolves were exterminated from the area by the late 1920s. They are designated as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in most of the lower 48 states. The reintroduction program is a cooperative effort with the National Park Service and USDA Forest Service. Late last century, we realized that something was wrong with the ecosystem in Yellowstone National Park. Without the wolves Yellowstone fails to maintain its natural state. It was made clear that the ecosystem in Yellowstone would never function properly until they were back. They decided that the wolf should be reintroduced into the ecosystem at Yellowstone. Many people, thought that this was foolish. The debate over wolves and Yellowstone has pissed off a lot of people, who will continue to rage for years. Why were wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone? Wolves helped restore Yellowstone's ecosystem to a condition that resembles the way used to be. The wolf, is a large predator, and therefor an important part of the parks ecosystem. Once the population recovered, interactions between predators and prey were restored. The wolves select the weakest and most vulnerable members of the populations of deer, elk, bison,? and kill them. Such actions enhance the health of the parks game species as well as weeding out the wussies. Even with wolves roaming the parks, visitors will rarely see them. They will be able to understand the importance of the wolf and see how the balance of life is essential. The biological factors resulting from reintroducing the wolf are important. However, the wolf itself is a mystery and symbol to mankind. Today, not everyone feels that same way about the wolf and its surroundings. Many don't know and understand the importance of the wolf and its duty. What you do not know you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.

What is the Meaning of `Sure Thing` Essay Example

What is the Meaning of `Sure Thing` Essay Example What is the Meaning of `Sure Thing` Essay What is the Meaning of `Sure Thing` Essay Essay Topic: Sure Thing One of the key thematic aspects of David Ives short play Sure Thing (1988) is the question of whether the plays two characters, Bill and Betty, genuinely achieve communication adn connection by the close of the play or whether the perceived true communication and relationship between the characters is actually a result of superficiality and repetition. In order to fully understand the plays device of restarting the same scene again and again, it is necessary to regard both possible outcomes or thematic interpretations as equally viable and simultaneous. In other words both aspects of the them are intended by Ives: that people do and do not achieve true communication and build genuine connections and relationships during the course of repeated, almost absurdly repeated events.In fact the device of the bell can be interpreted as showing both the universality of the repeated encounter between Bill and Betty but also of the universal nature of seclusion and isolation: the inability for p eople to reach one another despite repeated attempts to find the right mode and the right words. An example of how the repetition of scenes works to indicate the failed or broken aspects of interpersonal communication is when the first exchange of dialogue takes place:BILL-TABLE #1: Excuse me. Is this chair taken?BETTY-TABLE #1: Excuse me?BILL-TABLE #1: Is this taken?BETTY-TABLE #1: Yes it is.BILL-TABLE #1: Oh. Sorry.BETTY-TABLE #1: Sure thing(Ives)The initial status between two strangers is a closed, almost impenetrable solitude with little room for affection or emotional response.   The exchange of dialogue is meant to indicate the walls that exist between people in modern society, the way that politeness and   decorum serve a function   of facilitating isolation and precluding human interaction The next exchange of dialogue (after the scene is reset by the bell) show a slight softening of the decorum and the socially facilitated barriers of formal discourse:BILL-TABLE #3: E xcuse me. Is this chair taken?BETTY-TABLE #3: Excuse me?BILL-TABLE #3: Is this taken?BETTY-TABLE #3: No, but I’m expecting somebody in a minute.BILL-TABLE #3: Oh. Thanks anyway.BETTY-TABLE #3: Sure thing.(Ives)It is important to note that Bettys line that she is expecting somebody reveal the first overt emotional reference of the play but that the emotion is still a function of personal defensiveness and serves to inhibit rather than encourage further interaction. The dual progression demonstrated by these two opening scenes: one a movement toward emotion and toward interpersonal communication, the other a simultaneous movement toward defensiveness and isolation exemplify the progression of dual themes that persist right through to the end of the play.By the time Bill and Betty have made a demonstrable connection one that the audience can at least belive may be genuine, there is still no change in the outer formality of the dialogue and its simultaneously evasive and self-pr otective function. More than learning to truly reach one another or truly communicate, the characters can be understood to have reached a mutual understand of permissable superficiality. A sample of the closing dialogue shows that Ives intends the ambiguity of the perception of the charatcers true connection and emotional response to function, in fact, as a way of expressing two themes simultaneously which contradict one another but are nevertheless apparent throughout actual human society:BILL-TABLE #3: Y’know I was headed to the-BETTY-TABLE #3: (simultaneously) I was thinking about-BILL-TABLE #3: I’m sorry.BETTY-TABLE #3: No, go ahead.BILL-TABLE #3: I was going to say that I was headed to the movies in a little while,   Ã‚  Ã‚   and†¦BETTY-TABLE #3: So was I.(Ives)In conclusion, Ives intended Sure Thing to express a dual theme: that human both incapable of reaching a state of true connection and communication but they are equally incapable of escaping the cons tant drive to seek just such a connection and relationship. In this way, the device of scene-repetition in the play is able to express to seemingly contradictory themes simultaneously in order to more fully represent the actual state of human relationships in the modern world.