How Wolves Change Rivers

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Nora Lyang Professor Gagnon WCWP 10A 14 October 2017 How Videos Changed Effectiveness When I try to produce a mental image of Yellowstone park, a scenic landscape full of pristine, clear rivers and towering pine forests with sturdy boughs and rough bark comes to mind. I see a flawless ecosystem, with a balanced relationship between predator and prey; everything runs along smoothly. However, after viewing the Youtube video “How Wolves Change Rivers,” I realized that my own interpretation was merely an illusion; the state of Yellowstone wasn’t always perfect. Wolves who lived in the park were decimated by hunting in 1926; elk began to roam without fear of predators and overgrazed the terrain. With a deteriorating landscape, the earth was ashen …show more content…

Using direct examples of change, Monboit attempts to convince the audience that the reinstating of wolves had a positive impact on the overall ecosystem. This film is meant to educate the general public about the impact of wolves, or it can be aimed at whoever cares about the wildlife and national parks. Many individuals often have a personal bias against wolves due to stereotypes and superstitions and will think that the predators don’t have a beneficial impact on ecosystems, but the video proves just the opposite and attempts to change the unbelievers’ views toward a more positive light. By using historical examples of how wolves have changed the landscape and by challenging widely held societal views, the video successfully shows the impact of the wolf on Yellowstone …show more content…

By providing an accurate depiction of what happened because of the wolves, the video uses details as evidence. This drives the video beyond just a compilation of video clips and personal opinions by giving factual proof; events that occurred because of the wolves’ return are concrete facts that help convince the audience by strengthening the argument of the video. The film employs both qualitative data of how the wolves caused the indirect outcome of stabilized rivers and numerical data of how the trees’ height quintupled in six years to make it more successful, instead of relying on anecdotal evidence and opinions like the other articles do (TheSustainableMan). By providing both types of data, the video gives different views that complement each other and appeal to different perspectives that also adds to the video’s