Invasive Species
Pine Beetles
One of the invasive species to come to Yellowstone are the Pine Beetles. They aren’t native to the Yellowstone Ecosystem and they came because of the warmer weather. The beetles kill the whitebark pine trees in Yellowstone. The whitebark pine trees are very important to the area. They started an investigation in 1994 into why some of the trees were dying and they found out that it was because of the pine beetles. There are still some parts of the park that the whitebark pines are healthy. The trees are important to the ecosystem because they capture the water from melted snow and this helps provide water to the springs. The seeds from the tree provide nutrients to some of the local wildlife,including grizzly bears. The bears rely on the seeds to fatten up before they hibernate.
Whirling Disease
Another invasive species in the park is the parasites that cause whirling disease. The disease is affecting the native trout in Yellowstone. The disease usually causes neurological damage to young trout causing the effected trout to "whirl" in a cork screw pattern. This makes the trout more vulnerable to predators. This disease originally came from Europe but then it went to the eastern US and then spread to Yellowstone.