Torture for Wolves and Beavers: How Humans Are Destroying the Biological Order

You know what I see today? I see a massive global assault by humans on the key animals of the wild. As if a disease in our body were trying to suppress the immune system—identifying immune cells and destroying them first.

If we look closely at human actions, we can literally see how we are ATTACKING the true “sanitation workers” of the wild. Those animals on which entire local ecosystems, their health and prosperity, directly depend.

I stand in defense of wolves. I wrote the book “The Right to Life” and studied dozens of scientific papers by researchers from all over the world on how crucial wolves are to nature. But unfortunately, the authorities ignore both scientists and society. Wolves are deliberately portrayed as “evil monsters,” while the state openly encourages and develops their total eradication.

And yes, this is happening not only in Russia! It’s global. From the United States to Europe, where last year the authorities called to remove the protected status of wolves and start killing them. The same goes for countries of Africa, Asia, South America—everywhere humans can reach the wolves.

In Russia, hunters receive up to 50,000 rubles in bounty for every wolf killed. Wolves can be tortured to death using traps and snares, shot from vehicles, and even from helicopters. Every year, these “limits” are lifted, and the rewards grow!

And no one—believe me, NO ONE among officials—ever speaks of how vital wolves are in the wild. The media pump out only negative stories, scaring the public and teaching them to collectively hate wolves. Most of these people have never even seen a living wolf in their lives.

Today I want to show you a correlation with another important animal that authorities also call to destroy. Beavers — a keystone species in ecosystems. Like wolves, they too are allowed to be tortured and killed with snares and traps. Officials claim beavers are “harmful” and “dangerous” to humans.

For example, the governor of the Kaliningrad region publicly called to “cleanse” the region’s nature of “harmful and dangerous beavers.” Similar statements are regularly voiced by officials across the country!

When wolves are exterminated, people justify it by saying that if humans don’t kill them, they will “eat all the wildlife.” Yet when asked the simple question — “why didn’t they eat all the animals in Siberia before humans arrived?” — we never hear an answer.

Likewise, when beavers are exterminated, it’s justified by claims that they gnaw trees, build dams, and threaten agriculture. So, they say, “they’re pests and must be eliminated.”

NEW RESEARCH

There are still no real results in protecting wolves. We are simply being ignored! The industry of “budget money cutting” is too massive, and too many people genuinely hate wolves.

I continue to study scientific research. Today I carefully analyzed a 2023 study about the interactions between wolves and beavers in the wild.

The study, conducted by scientists from the University of Minnesota, revealed fascinating facts about how wolves, through their influence on beavers, reshape the very structure of the forest.

In the United States, wolves have also been wiped out in many states. Beavers too are being “eradicated”—entire government programs are running to “cleanse” nature of wolves and beavers. Therefore, scientists went to Voyageurs National Park (Minnesota, USA), one of the few places where both still coexist.

The researchers used field observations, GPS tracking, and statistical modeling. Wolves and beavers were fitted with GPS collars to monitor their movements and interactions. The team also surveyed vegetation to assess how beaver behavior affects forest composition and structure.

The results showed that the presence of wolves significantly changes beaver behavior. When wolves are nearby, beavers reduce their activity and stay closer to their lodges, which leads to less environmental alteration.

Simply put: wolves maintain balance in local ecosystems! Beavers then take from nature only what they truly need.

Reduced beaver activity in areas with many wolves led to fewer felled trees and dams. This in turn reduced the number of beaver-created ponds, affecting the distribution and diversity of plant species in those regions.

As a result, in ecosystems where both wolves and beavers are present, scientists observed cascading effects on forest dynamics. Areas with high wolf activity showed a different vegetation structure compared to areas with fewer wolves, proving that wolves, through predation, shape the forest ecosystem.

WOLVES ARE KEY REGULATORS OF ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES.

The research was conducted in boreal forests — essentially, our Russian Taiga. Therefore, its findings are fully applicable to Russia’s wild nature.

Beavers are skilled engineers who create complex landscapes. They help protect forests from fires and sustain biodiversity. But the presence of wolves is VITALLY NECESSARY — it adds another layer of regulation, keeping beaver activity within natural limits.

In other words, wolves keep ecosystems in order and prevent excessive damage from other species, including beavers.

This is a classic example of a “trophic cascade,” when the presence of a top predator affects every level of the food chain.

For those unfamiliar: a trophic cascade is the chain of ecological interactions flowing downward from the apex predator. Wolves, for instance, regulate other species’ behavior and population, thus relieving lower trophic levels from over-predation. This applies to both animals and plants. Without wolves or other top predators, the entire trophic cascade begins to collapse.

WOLVES MAINTAIN ECOLOGICAL BALANCE

Scientists concluded that it is essential to RESTORE wolf packs in regions where they have been eradicated. By doing so, we can reestablish disrupted ecological processes that depend on these apex predators.

Protecting top predators like wolves not only preserves wildlife but also safeguards the health and resilience of entire ecosystems. This new research ONCE AGAIN proves it.

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

It means that by exterminating wolves, authorities are breaking ecological balance and destroying biocenoses that have existed for thousands of years. This leads to ecosystem degradation and uncontrolled cascading problems piling one upon another.

Beavers are ecosystem engineers whose activity reshapes landscapes. They build dams, create ponds, and alter river flows—forming new aquatic ecosystems. Without wolves, beavers freely multiply and expand, drastically transforming large forest and wetland areas.

Excessive beaver activity floods vast forest areas, causes waterlogging, and changes forest composition. Altered river and stream flows then disrupt hydrological cycles and water supplies.

Growing beaver populations increase competition for resources. Since beavers rely on wood for their dams and lodges, forests in certain areas become depleted, affecting other species that depend on these habitats.

These changes—caused by unchecked beaver activity—can harm biodiversity. Flooded forests, altered waterways, and resource depletion all combine to destabilize the ecosystem.

And so we see a predictable outcome: exterminate one species — and a new problem begins! The authorities then decide to kill another, and another, and it goes on WITHOUT END.

Yet both beavers and wolves SHAPE ENTIRE ECOSYSTEMS and are IRREPLACEABLE in the wild.

WHAT MUST BE DONE?

Stop exterminating wolves. Restore lost wolf packs in regions where humans have wiped them out. Launch federal programs to protect the Russian Wolf. Reevaluate the role of wolves in nature, relying on scientific data and real global research. Acknowledge the mistakes made over the years. Any human interference with the wild must include full ecological interaction assessments across all biological chains.

The return of wolves to ecosystems will heal the wild, bring stability, and resolve many ecological problems. Even the “beaver problem” will vanish — for wolves, the true sanitarians of the wild, will restore natural order in the Russian Taiga.

It is not too late — we must stop the extermination of wolves! Without federal protection programs, this cannot be achieved.

© Pavel Pashkov