Word: preying
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...relationship between humans and wolves has always been a troubled one. Just a century ago, more than 100,000 of the fearsome predators roamed the West, helping themselves to the abundant prey and vast territory they found there. Early settlers, who saw the wolves as threats to both their cattle and themselves, generally killed them on sight. Ultimately, the government placed a bounty on the wolves, encouraging hunters to shoot them, trap them and even burn them alive. Before the middle of the 20th century, Canis lupus was wobbling on the edge of extinction...
...becomes flabby and unbalanced. With the dominant predator gone, the next biggest hunter--typically the coyote--assumes the top spot. As the coyote population explodes, the populations of foxes, badgers and martens, which compete with coyotes for rodents and other small game, dwindle. At the same time, large prey like elk, which were once brought down by wolves, begin to multiply excessively, stripping vegetation from highlands. And with no elk carcasses lying around, scavengers like magpies, ravens and grizzly bears, accustomed to dining on scraps from wolf kills, have to scrounge elsewhere for protein. "The wolf is a keystone species...
...Yellowstone that cascade has long been felt, and since the 1930s, wildlife managers have watched in dismay as the park's ecosystem--once well balanced between predator and prey--grew more and more bottom-heavy. Finally, in the 1970s, they decided to do something about it. Working through the then new Endangered Species Act, they proposed a plan under which wolves would be imported from Canada to reclaim their place in the ecosystem. Twenty years later, the plan was approved, and wolves were trucked from across the border--31 to Yellowstone and 35 to Idaho...
...tier society. Workers and students not properly trained will be left behind, opening the way for the social disruptions that accompanied the shift to the industrial age. At a time when they are most needed, schools have been allowed to deteriorate, and worker-training programs have fallen prey to budget austerity. For all the spending on computers and software ($800 billion in the U.S. during the past five years), the most obvious investment has not been made: ensuring that every schoolchild has a personal computer. Grove himself says this would be the most effective way to reboot education in America...
...want of a little guidance and encouragement, a child may drop out of school, turn to drugs or crime, or create new life before he or she is mature enough to assume the responsibilities of parenthood. Yet as many as 15 million American youngsters are at risk of falling prey to these or other social scourges of our time...