Yellowstone Rockies, USA
- The Path of the Pronghorn Antelope Video
- An icon of the American West faces new obstacles as it travels an ancient route through sagebrush plains.
- ©WCS
- Bighorn Sheep in Yellowstone Photo
- Two centuries ago in Yellowstone, bighorn sheep were a common sight. Today, after decades of overhunting, competition with livestock, and habitat loss, just a couple hundred remain in the park.
- Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS
- Yellowstone Rockies Landscape Photo
- The Yellowstone Rockies are home to the greatest concentration of large mammals in the contiguous United States.
- Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS
Stretching from the Canadian border south through Wyoming, the Yellowstone Rockies harbor the three wildest ecosystems in the lower 48 states: the famous Greater Yellowstone, Salmon Selway, and the Glacier-Northern Continental Divide (also called the “Crown of the Continent”). This rugged landscape provides crucial strongholds for wolves, grizzly bears, lynx, bull trout, cutthroat trout, pica, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and wolverines. Many victories for conservation have been achieved here, from the establishment of the world’s first national park in 1872 to the first federally-protected migration corridor in 2008, which safeguards the "Path of the Pronghorn.”
Climate change, energy development, human-wildlife conflict, and exurban development (also called “rural sprawl”) are increasingly altering this wild region, and the future of the landscape and the species it supports depends on continued conservation efforts and devising creative ways to help people and wildlife coexist.
Fast Facts
- The Greater Yellowstone, Crown of the Continent, and Salmon-Selway ecosystems cover more than 62,500 square miles.
- The Salmon-Selway ecosystem includes the largest roadless area in the lower 48 states.
- Greater Yellowstone is home to the greatest concentration of large mammals in the contiguous United States and a complete assemblage of native carnivores.
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Challenges
Increasing rural sprawl, energy development, and motorized recreational activities all threaten the integrity and wildlife of this unique mountainous landscape. Protecting the long-term health of iconic North American species like grizzly bears, sage grouse, wolverines, and pronghorn remains a serious challenge and depends on effectively managing human development and energy projects, minimizing human-animal conflict, and protecting the connectivity of habitats across the landscape.
WCS Responds
WCS has a long history in the Yellowstone Rockies, beginning with our successful project to restore the bison population in the early 1900s. Today, WCS researchers are working throughout the region. We study and conserve the elusive wolverine, protect the migration corridor and wintering grounds for
pronghorn antelope, minimize conflicts between people and grizzly bears and wolves, aid wildlife managers in preparing for the effects of climate change, and work to ensure that wildlife can continue to range freely across the open spaces of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.
WCS landscape and species analyses are now used by local land trusts to inform targeted land acquisitions and by state policymakers to reform laws on the hunting and trapping of wildlife, including wolverines, moose, and mountain lions. Our wolverine initiative led to the protection of key areas linking core habitats. In Idaho’s Lost River Sinks landscape, we’re working with the Department of Energy, the Bureau of Land Management, and Idaho Fish and Game to ensure that pygmy rabbits, pronghorn antelope, and sage grouse have a secure future within the largest intact sagebrush habitat in North America.
WCS is developing cutting-edge science and scenario-based planning for coping with the potential impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats across this vital landscape. We are working with planners and land managers to combat rural sprawl, and collaborating with landowners in the Crown of the Continent to restore beavers and the ecosystem services they provide. We work closely with the energy development industry to understand how impacts of extraction affect wildlife and their movements and to develop best practices. In the Centennial Mountains, with the help of dogs specially trained to detect scat, WCS researchers mapped the occurrence of large carnivores between protected areas of Yellowstone and Idaho. This led to the protection of wildlife corridors by closing more than 40 miles of roads and preventing development in a sensitive area.
WCS Projects
Food, water, shelter, and the freedom to roam—these are the basic needs of wildlife. WCS-North America works to protect and interlink crucial wildlife habitats through field-based research, outreach, and policy.
From the Newsroom
A new publication by IUCN, written with WCS collaboration, reports on the current status of wild American bison, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the species is conserved for the future.
A national survey says that the American public respect and love bison, but most are unaware that the animals are in trouble. The survey is part of an effort to spark public support for ecological restoration of the species.
A WCS study finds that the busy beaver’s signature dams provide critical habitat for a variety of migratory songbirds, particularly in the semi-arid interior of the West.
The U.S. Forest Service designates the nation’s first wildlife migration corridor to protect the movement of North America’s fastest land animal, the pronghorn. These swift creatures number nearly half a million in Wyoming alone, but the proliferation of gas fields and housing development has sliced up much of their territory.
As western states debate removing the gray wolf from the Endangered Species
List, WCS researcher Dr. Kim Berger speaks out on behalf of an unsuspecting wolf ally: the pronghorn antelope.
What will it take to conserve the Path of the Pronghorn, a trail that our continent’s fastest land animal has used since the end of the last Ice Age? In a landscape as famous for its mountains as for its oil fields, WCS scientist Dr. Joel Berger is determined to find out.