document_title: History of wolves in Yellowstone

question_text: when was the last wolf pack killed in yellowstone

text: History of wolves in Yellowstone

text: Extirpation (1872–1926)[edit]

text: In 1872, when Yellowstone National Park was created, there was yet no legal protection for wildlife in the park. In the early years of the park, administrators, hunters and tourists were essentially free to kill any game or predator they came across. The gray wolf was especially vulnerable to this wanton killing because it was generally considered an undesirable predator and was being willingly extirpated throughout its North American range. In January 1883, the Secretary of the Interior issued regulations prohibiting hunting of most park animals, but the regulations did not apply to wolves, coyotes, bears, mountain lions and other small predators.[1]

text: Shortly after the U.S. Army took over administration of the park on August 1st, 1886, Captain Moose Harris, the first military superintendent, banned public hunting of any wildlife and any predator control was to be left to the park's administration.[2] Official records show however, that the U.S. Army did not begin killing any wolves until 1914.[3]

text: In 1885, Congress created the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy with the express purpose of research for the protection of wildlife. The agency soon became the U.S. Biological Survey which was the forerunner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1907, under political pressure from the western cattle and livestock industries, this agency began a concerted program which eventually was called: Animal Damage Control. This predator control program alone killed 1,800 wolves and 23,000 coyotes in 39 U.S. National Forests in 1907.[3] In 1916, when the National Park Service was created, its enabling legislation included words that authorized the Secretary of the Interior to "provide in his discretion for the destruction of such animals and of such plant life as may be detrimental to the use of said parks, monuments and reservations".[3]

text: It is generally accepted that sustainable gray wolf packs had been extirpated from Yellowstone National Park by 1926,[1] although the National Park Service maintained its policies of predator control in the park until 1933.[3] However, a 1975–77 National Park Service sponsored study revealed that during the period 1927 to 1977, there were several hundred probable sightings of wolves in the park.[4] Between 1977 and the re-introduction in 1995, there were additional reliable sightings of wolves in the park, most believed to be singles or pairs transiting the region.[5]

text: Official records of wolves killed[edit]

text: Prior to the National Park Service assuming control of the park in 1916, the U.S. Army killed 14 wolves during their tenure (1886–1916),[3] most in the years 1914–15.[1] In 1940, Adolph Murie, a noted wildlife biologist published his Fauna Series No. 4—Fauna of the National Parks of the United States-Ecology of the Coyote in the Yellowstone National Park. In this report, Murie tallied the number of wolves killed as reported annually by park administrators between 1915 and 1935:[6]

text:
From the Superintendent's Annual Report for:

Year
Number killed

1915
7

1916
14

1917
4

1918
36

1919
6

1920
28

1921
12

1922
24

1923
8

1924–1935
0

text: Updated research in the 1980s verified that the last official killing of wolves in the park took place in 1926 when two pups found near Soda Butte Creek were killed by park rangers.[7] The last reported wolf killed in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (prior to today’s legal hunting or control measures) occurred in May 1943 when Leo Cottenoir, a Native American sheepheader on the Wind River Reservation shot a wolf near the southern border of the park.[8]

text: Absence (1926–1995)[edit]

text: Ecological impacts[edit]

text: Once the wolves were gone, elk populations began to rise. Over the next few years conditions of Yellowstone National Park declined drastically. A team of scientists visiting Yellowstone in 1929 and 1933 reported, "The range was in deplorable conditions when we first saw it, and its deterioration has been progressing steadily since then." By this time many biologists were worried about eroding land and plants dying off. The elk were multiplying inside the park and deciduous, woody species such as aspen and cottonwood suffered from overgrazing. The park service started trapping and moving the elk and, when that was not effective, killing them. Elk population control methods continued for more than 30 years. Elk control prevented further degradation of the range, but didn't improve its overall condition. At times, people would mention bringing wolves back to Yellowstone to help control the elk population. Yellowstone's managers were not eager to bring back wolves, especially after so successfully extirpating them from the park. Elk control continued into the 1960s. In the late 1960s, local hunters began to complain to their congressmen that there were too few elk, and the congressmen threatened to stop funding Yellowstone. Killing elk was given up as control method which allowed elk populations to again rise. As elk populations rose, the quality of the range decreased affecting many other animals. Without wolves, coyote populations increased dramatically which adversely impacted the pronghorn antelope population.[9] However, it was the overly large elk populations that caused the most profound changes to the ecosystem of Yellowstone with the absence of wolves.[10]

text: Re-introduction initiatives[edit]

text: The campaign to restore the gray wolf in Yellowstone had its roots in a number of seminal studies related to the predator-prey ecology of the park. In 1940 Adolph Murie published Ecology of the Coyote in the Yellowstone National Park. That study and his 1940–41 work The Wolves of Mount McKinley was instrumental in building a scientific foundation for wolf conservation.[11] In 1944, noted wildlife biologist Aldo Leopold, once an avid predator control advocate, made the following comments in his review of The Wolves of North America, Young and Goldman, 1944:

text: There still remains, even in the United States, some areas of considerable size in which we feel that both red and gray [wolves] may be allowed to continue their existence with little molestation. …Where are these areas? Probably every reasonable ecologist will agree that some of them should lie in the larger national parks and wilderness areas: for instance Yellowstone and its adjacent national forests. …Why, in the necessary process of extirpating wolves from livestock ranges of Wyoming and Montana, were not some of the uninjured animals used to restock Yellowstone?

text: By the 1960s, cultural and scientific understanding of ecosystems was changing attitudes toward the wolf and other large predators. In the early 1960s, Douglas Pimlott, a noted Canadian wildlife biologist was calling for the restorations of wolves in the northern rockies. In 1970 American wolf expert, David Mech published The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species (1970, 1981), an enlightening study of the wolf and its impact on its environment.[13] In 1978, when wildlife biologist John Weaver published his seminal study Wolves of Yellowstone, he concluded the report with the following recommendation:

text: Therefore I recommend restoring this native predator by introducing wolves to Yellowstone

text: The gray wolf was one of the first species to be listed as endangered (1967) under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966.[14] However, until the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, there was no legal basis or process for re-introducing the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.[13] The Endangered Species Act obligated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop restoration plans for each species designated as Endangered. The first recovery plan was completed in 1980 but gained little traction. In 1987, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a revised Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan which led the way to wolf reintroduction. The plan was a cooperative effort between the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, academia, state wildlife agencies and environmental groups. Its Executive Summary contains the following:

text: The Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan represents a "road map" to recovery 'of the gray wolf in' the Rocky Mountains. The primary goal of the plan is to remove the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf from the endangered and threatened species list by securing and maintaining a minimum of 10 breeding pairs of wolves in each of the three recovery areas for a minimum of three successive years.

text: In 1991 Congress directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the express purpose of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park and regions of Central Idaho. The final statement was published on April 14, 1994 and seriously examined five potential alternatives for reestablishing wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho.[16]

text:
Reintroduction of Experimental Populations (incorporating most of the state implemented nonessential reintroduction alternative with parts of the 1987 Recovery Plan).
Natural Recovery (with limited land-use restrictions in anticipation of some illegal killing of wolves).
No wolf (as proposed in alternative scoping).
Wolf Management Committee (as proposed by Congress).
Reintroduction of Non-experimental Wolves (incorporating the accelerated wolf recovery alternative but with fewer land-use restrictions)

text: Alternative 1 was the recommended and ultimately adopted alternative:

text: Reintroduction of Experimental Populations Alternative – The purpose of this alternative is to accomplish wolf recovery by reintroducing wolves designated as nonessential experimental populations to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho and by implementing provisions within Section 10(j) of the ESA to conduct special management to address local concerns. The states and tribes would be encouraged to implement the special rules for wolf management outside national parks and national wildlife refuges under cooperative agreement with the FWS.

text: The final EIS opened the way for re-introduction, but not without opposition. The Sierra Club and National Audubon Society opposed the re-introduction plan on the grounds that Experimental populations were not protected enough once the wolves were outside the park. The Farm Bureau's of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana opposed the plan on the basis that the wrong subspecies of wolf—Canis lupus occidentalis (northwestern wolf (Canada)) instead of Canis lupus irremotus (Northern Rocky Mountains wolf) was selected for reintroduction. These objections were overcome and in January 1995, the process of physically reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone began.[18]

text: Re-introduction (1995–present)[edit]

text: Initial releases 1995–96[edit]

text: In January 1995, U.S. and Canadian wildlife officials captured 14 wolves from multiple packs east of Jasper National Park, near Hinton, Alberta, Canada. These wolves arrived in Yellowstone in two shipments—January 12, 1995 (8 wolves) and January 20, 1995 (6 wolves). They were released into three acclimation pens—Crystal Creek, Rose Creek and Soda Butte Creek in the Lamar Valley in Northeast East Yellowstone National Park. In March 1995, the pens were opened and between March 21 and March 31, 1995 all 14 wolves were loose in Yellowstone.[19]

text: Seventeen (17) additional wolves captured in Canada arrived in Yellowstone in January 1996 and were released into the park in April 1996 from the Chief Joseph, Lone Star, Druid Peak and Nez Perce pens. These were the last wolves released into the park as officials believed that the natural reproduction and survival were sufficient to obviate additional releases.[19][20]

text: Annual wolf status since reintroduction[edit]

text: Wolf population declines, when they occur, result from "intraspecific strife," food stress, mange, canine distemper, legal hunting of wolves in areas outside the park (for sport or for livestock protection) and in one case in 2009, lethal removal by park officials of a human-habituated wolf.[22]

text: *1995-99 Data reflects status of the wolf in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Since 2000 monitoring has focused on packs operating within park boundaries. Wolves continue to spread to surrounding areas, and the last official report by the park for the Greater Yellowstone Area counted 272 wolves in 2002.

text:
Annual Status of Wolves in Yellowstone (As of December)[23]

Year
Total Number of Packs
Total Number of Wolves
Number of Pups Surviving

1995*
3
21
9

1996*
9
51
14

1997*
9
86
49

1998*
11
112
36

1999*
11
118
38

2000
8
119
55-60

2001
10
132
43

2002
14
148
58

2003
13–14
174
59

2004
16
171
59

2005[24]
13
118
22

2006
13
136
60

2007
11
171
64

2008
12
124
22

2009[22]
14
96
23

2010[25]
11
97
38

2011[26]
10
98
34

2012[27]
10
83
20

2013[28]
10
95
41

2014

2015

2016[29]
11
108

text: Ecological impacts after re-introduction[edit]

text: Scientists have been researching and studying the impacts on the Yellowstone ecosystem since re-introduction in 1995.

text: As the wolf population in the park has grown, the elk population, their favored prey, has declined. Prior to reintroduction, the EIS predicted that wolves would kill an average 12 elk per wolf annually. This estimate proved too low as wolves are now killing an average of 22 elk per wolf annually.[30] This decline in elk has resulted in changes in flora, most specifically willows, cottonwoods and aspens along the fringes of heavily timbered areas. Although wolf kills are directly attributable to declines in elk numbers, some research has shown that elk behavior has been significantly altered by wolf predation. The constant presence of wolves have pushed elk into less favorable habitats, raised their stress level, lowered their nutrition and their overall birth rate.[31]

text: The wolves became significant predators of coyotes after their reintroduction. Since then, in 1995 and 1996, the local coyote population went through a dramatic restructuring. Until the wolves returned, Yellowstone National Park had one of the densest and most stable coyote populations in America due to a lack of human impacts. Two years after the wolf reintroductions, the pre-wolf population of coyotes had been reduced to 50% through both competitive exclusion and intraguild predation. Coyote numbers were 39% lower in the areas of Yellowstone where wolves were reintroduced. In one study, about 16% of radio-collared coyotes were preyed upon by wolves. Yellowstone coyotes have had to shift their territories as a result, moving from open meadows to steep terrain. Carcasses in the open no longer attract coyotes; when a coyote is chased on flat terrain, it is often killed. They feel more secure on steep terrain where they will often lead a pursuing wolf downhill. As the wolf comes after it, the coyote will turn around and run uphill. Wolves, being heavier, cannot stop and the coyote gains a large lead. Though physical confrontations between the two species are usually dominated by the larger wolves, coyotes have been known to attack wolves if they outnumber them. Both species will kill each other's pups given the opportunity.[32][33]

text: Coyotes, in their turn, naturally suppress foxes, so the diminished coyote population has led to a rise in foxes, and "That in turn shifts the odds of survival for coyote prey such as hares and young deer, as well as for the small rodents and ground-nesting birds the foxes stalk. These changes affect how often certain roots, buds, seeds and insects get eaten, which can alter the balance of local plant communities, and so on down the food chain all the way to fungi and microbes." [34]

text: The presence of wolves has also coincided with a dramatic rise in the park's beaver population; where there was just one beaver colony in Yellowstone in 2001, there were nine beaver colonies in the park by 2011. The presence of wolves seems to have encouraged elk to browse more widely, diminishing their pressure on stands of willow, a plant that beavers need to survive the winter.[35] The renewed presence of beavers in the ecosystem has substantial effects on the local watershed because the existence of beaver dams "even[s] out the seasonal pulses of runoff; store[s] water for recharging the water table; and provide[s] cold, shaded water for fish."[36] Beaver dams also counter erosion and create "new pond and marsh habitats for moose, otters, mink, wading birds, waterfowl, fish, amphibians and more."[34]

text: Similarly, after the wolves' reintroduction, their increased predation of elk benefited Yellowstone's grizzly bear population, as it led to a significant increase in the growth of berries in the national park, an important food source for the grizzly bears.[37]

text: Wolf kills are scavenged by and thus feed a wide array of animals, including, but not limited to, ravens, wolverines, bald eagles, golden eagles, grizzly bears, black bears, jays, magpies, martens and coyotes.[34]

text: Meanwhile, wolf packs often claim kills made by cougars, which has driven that species back out of valley hunting grounds to their more traditional mountainside territory.[34]

text: The top-down effect of the reintroduction of an apex predator like the wolf on other flora and fauna in an ecosystem is an example of a trophic cascade.

text: 2009 removal from Endangered Species List[edit]

text: Because gray wolf populations in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho had recovered sufficiently to meet the goals of the Wolf Recovery Plan, on May 4, 2008 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service changed the status of the gray wolf population known as the Northern Rocky Mountains Distinct Population Segment from Endangered to Experimental Population-Non Essential.[14]

text: The wolves in Yellowstone and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem fall within this population. In response to the change in status, state wildlife authorities in Idaho and Montana enacted quota-based hunting seasons on wolves as part of their approved state Wolf Management Plans. Environmental groups objected to the delisting and the hunting seasons, but despite legal attempts to stop them (Defenders of Wildlife et al v Ken Salazar et al), the wolf hunts, which commenced in Montana in September 2009 were allowed to proceed. A number of noted wildlife biologists that had been instrumental in the restoration of wolves—David Mech,[38] Douglas Smith,[39] and Mark Hebblewhite [40] supported the state wildlife management plans and the delisting because they believed the wolf populations were now at sustainable levels.

text: Although wolves within the park boundaries were still fully protected, wolves that ventured outside the boundaries of the park in Idaho or Montana could now be legally hunted. During these hunts, Montana hunters legally killed a number of wolves in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness known to frequent the northeast corner of the park.

text: Criticism[edit]

text: Hunting opportunities[edit]

text: From 2000–2004, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks reduced antlerless permits by 51% from 2,882 to 1,400. They proposed only 100 permits for 2006 which was a 96% decrease from the 2,660 permits issued in 1995. Initially, the effects of wolf predation on elk during the first five years of the recovery were not detected, as elk numbers were identical to those of 1980–1994. From the winter of 1995 to the winter of 2004 however, the elk greatly decreased in number, dropping from 16,791 to 8,335 as the number of wolves on the northern range increased from 21 to 106, though predation from bears, increased human harvests, more severe winter and droughts were also factors. Since 2000, 45% of known deaths and 75% of predation-caused deaths of radio collared cow-elk have been confirmed to be attributable to wolves. Human caused deaths in the same period accounted for 8–30% of known deaths. Yellowstone elk comprise up to 92% of the winter diet of wolves, the overall kill rates of Yellowstone wolves on elk in winter being estimated at 22 ungulates per wolf annually. This is higher than the 12 ungulates per wolf rate predicted in the ESA.[41]

text: Subspecies[edit]

text: Historically, the wolf populations originally native to Yellowstone were classed under the subspecies C. l. irremotus. When the issue of what subspecies to use for the introduction was raised, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representatives stated that the taxonomy of gray wolves had been revised numerous times, and that C. l. irremotus was not a distinct subspecies, but a geographical variant. Three publications were made on the appropriateness of using a founding population of Canadian wolves: Brewster and Fritz supported the motion, while Nowak determined that the original Yellowstone wolves were more similar to C. l. nubilus, a subspecies already present in Minnesota, and that the Canadian animals proposed by Brewster and Fritz were of the subspecies C. l. occidentalis, a significantly larger animal. The rationale behind Brewster and Fritz's favor was that wolves show little genetic diversity, and that the original population was extinct anyway. This was contradicted by Nowak, who contested that Minnesotan wolves were much more similar in size and shape to the original population than the proposed Canadian wolves, though he conceded that C. l. occidentalis was probably already migrating southward even before human intervention. The final use of Canadian wolves for the reintroduction was not without criticism: the American Society of Mammalogists criticized the project's lack of deference to the principle of Bergmann's rule, stating that the wolves used for the introduction were 30% larger than the original park wolves, and were adapted to much colder climates. Finally, the society questioned the legality under the ESA of "recovering" a taxon of wolf by expanding the historic range of a less similar type, when more closely related founder stock still remained available.[42] Doug Smith states that the size difference between the introduced wolves and the original wolves was actually only a 6-7 percent difference and Minnesotan wolves had no experience with elk and bison and were not adapted to mountainous terrain.[43]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
^ Jump up to: a b c Haines, Aubrey L. (1996). The Yellowstone Story—A History of Our First National Park. II. Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado. pp. 80–82. ISBN 0-87081-391-9.
Jump up ^ Schullery, Paul (1997). Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. p. 125. ISBN 0-395-84174-7.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Chase, Alton (1986). "The Wolf Mystery". Playing God in Yellowstone—The Destruction of America's First National Park. Boston, MA: The Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. 120–125. ISBN 0-87113-025-4.
^ Jump up to: a b Weaver, John (1996). "The Wolves of Yellowstone". In Schullery, Paul. The Yellowstone Wolf—A Guide and Sourcebook. Worland, WY: High Plains Publishing. pp. 3–33. ISBN 1-881019-13-6.
Jump up ^ Schullery, Paul, ed. (1996). "Chapter 12—Gray Wolf Monitoring in Yellowstone National Park". The Yellowstone Wolf—A Guide and Sourcebook. Worland, WY: High Plains Publishing. pp. 112–117. ISBN 1-881019-13-6.
Jump up ^ Murie, Adolph (1940). Fauna of the National Parks of the United States-Ecology of the Coyote in the Yellowstone National Park (Report). U.S. Department of the Interior.
Jump up ^ Fischer, Hank (1995). "How The West was Lost". Wolf Wars—The Remarkable Inside Story of the Restoration of Wolves to Yellowstone. Helena, MT: Falcon Press Publishing Co. Inc. pp. 10–23. ISBN 1-56044-352-9.
Jump up ^ Schullery, Paul, ed. (1996). "Chapter 7 The Last Wolf 1943 An Interview with Leo Cottenoir 1992". The Yellowstone Wolf—A Guide and Sourcebook. Worland, WY: High Plains Publishing. pp. 92–96. ISBN 1-881019-13-6.
Jump up ^ Kim Murray Berger, Eric M. Gese, and Joel Berger (2008). "Indirect Effects and Traditional Trophic Cascades: A Test Involving Wolves, Coyotes, And Pronghorn". Ecology. pp. 818–828. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
Jump up ^ Stolzenburg, William (2008). Where the Wild Things Were. Jeffers Literary Press.
Jump up ^ Fischer, Hank (1995). "Carriers of the Torch". Wolf Wars—The Remarkable Inside Story of the Restoration of Wolves to Yellowstone. Helena, MT: Falcon Press Publishing Co. Inc. pp. 24–34. ISBN 1-56044-352-9.
Jump up ^ Schullery, Paul, ed. (1996). "Chapter 8—Review of the Wolves of North America, Aldo Leopold". The Yellowstone Wolf—A Guide and Sourcebook. Worland, WY: High Plains Publishing. pp. 97–98. ISBN 1-881019-13-6.
^ Jump up to: a b Fischer, Hank (1995). "From Varmints to Rock Stars". Wolf Wars—The Remarkable Inside Story of the Restoration of Wolves to Yellowstone. Helena, MT: Falcon Press Publishing Co. Inc. pp. 35–43. ISBN 1-56044-352-9.
^ Jump up to: a b "Species Profile-Gray Wolf". U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
Jump up ^ Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan (PDF) (Report). Denver, CO: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1987.
Jump up ^ The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho-Final Environmental Impact Statement (PDF) (Report). Denver, CO: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1994.
Jump up ^ The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho-Final Environmental Impact Statement (PDF) (Report). Denver, CO: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1994. pp. 2.1–2.11.
Jump up ^ Fischer, Hank (1995). "Wolf Wars". Wolf Wars—The Remarkable Inside Story of the Restoration of Wolves to Yellowstone. Helena, MT: Falcon Press Publishing Co. Inc. pp. 143–157. ISBN 1-56044-352-9.
^ Jump up to: a b Phillips, Michael K; Smith Douglas W. (1997). Yellowstone Wolf Project-Biennial Report 1995–96 (PDF) (Report). National Park Service.
Jump up ^ Smith, Douglas W. (1998). Yellowstone Wolf Project—Annual Report 1997 (PDF) (Report). National Park Service.
Jump up ^ Smith, D.W., D.R. Stahler, E. Albers, M. Metz, L. Williamson, N. Ehlers, K. Cassidy, J. Irving, R. Raymond, E. Almberg, and R. McIntyre (2009). Yellowstone Wolf Project—2008 Annual Report (PDF) (Report). Yellowstone Center for Resources, Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service. pp. vi. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Jump up to: a b Yellowstone Wolf Project, Annual Report 2009
Jump up ^ Annual Wolf Project Reports, Yellowstone National Park, 1995–2008
Jump up ^ Yellowstone Wolf Project, Annual Report 2005
Jump up ^ [NPS.gov: Wolves of Yellowstone, http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wolves.htm, visited 10/28/2011]
Jump up ^ [1]
Jump up ^ Yellowstone Wolf Project, Annual Report 2012
Jump up ^ Yellowstone Wolf Project, Annual Report 2013
Jump up ^ Peaco, Jim. "Wolves in Yellowstone National Park". National Park Service. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
Jump up ^ White, P.J.; Smith, Douglas W. (Winter 2005). "Wolf EIS Predictions and Ten-Year Appraisals" (PDF). Yellowstone Science. 13 (1): 34–41.
Jump up ^ Ellig, Tracy (July 15, 2009). "Greater Yellowstone elk suffer worse nutrition and lower birth rates due to wolves". Montana State University News Service.
Jump up ^ "Weaving A New Web: Wolves Change An Ecosystem" Archived 2009-01-24 at the Wayback Machine., Zoogoer magazine, May/June 1998, Smithsonian National Zoo
Jump up ^ "Coyotes Cower in Wolf Territory". Livescience. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Douglas H. Chadwick (June–July 2011). "Keystone Species: How Predators Create Abundance and Stability". Mother Earth News.
Jump up ^ "Beyond the Headlines". Living on Earth. March 20, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
Jump up ^ YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK WOLF REINTRODUCTION IS CHANGING THE FACE OF THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE ECOSYSTEM, YellowstonePark.com, BY STAFF, JUNE 21, 2011, visited 10/28/2011
Jump up ^ Barber, Elizabeth (29 July 2013). "Why the return of the wolf is good news for the bear". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
Jump up ^ "Declaration of David Mech-Defenders of Wildlife et al v Ken Salazar et al" (PDF). U.S. District Court, Missoula, MT. August 25, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
Jump up ^ "Declaration of Douglas Smith-Defenders of Wildlife et al v Ken Salazar et al" (PDF). U.S. District Court, Missoula, MT. August 25, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
Jump up ^ "Declaration of Mark Hebblewhite-Defenders of Wildlife et al v Ken Salazar et al" (PDF). U.S. District Court, Missoula, MT. August 24, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
Jump up ^ Yellowstone National Park's gray wolves impact elk
Jump up ^ Physiological (Morphological) Basis for Establishing a Northern Rocky Mountain DPS
Jump up ^ http://www.mtpioneer.com/2014-January-Top-Yellowstone-Expert.html

tag: ol

text: Further reading[edit]

text:
Urbigkit, Cat (2008). Yellowstone Wolves: A Chronicle of the Animal, the People, and the Politics. Blacksburg, VI: McDonald & Woodward Publishing. ISBN 0-939923-70-X.
Bartlett, Richard A. (1974). Nature's Yellowstone. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
Haines, Aubrey L. (1977). The Yellowstone Story—A History of Our First National Park. Yellowstone National Park, WY: Yellowstone Library and Museum Association.
Chase, Alton (1986). Playing God in Yellowstone—The Destruction of America's First National Park. Boston, MA: The Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0-87113-025-4.
Bartlett, Richard (1985). Yellowstone: A Wilderness Besieged. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-1098-9.
Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan (PDF) (Report). Denver, CO: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1987.
The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho-Final Environmental Impact Statement (PDF) (Report). Denver, CO: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1994.
Fischer, Hank (1995). Wolf Wars—The Remarkable Inside Story of the Restoration of Wolves to Yellowstone. Helena, MT: Falcon Press Publishing Co. Inc. ISBN 1-56044-352-9.
Schullery, Paul, ed. (1996). The Yellowstone Wolf—A Guide and Sourcebook. Worland, WY: High Plains Publishing. ISBN 1-881019-13-6.
Kay, Charles E. (January 1996). Wolf Recovery, Political Ecology and Endangered Species (Report). The Independent Institute.
Schullery, Paul (1997). Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 0-395-84174-7.
McNamee, Thomas (1997). The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. ISBN 0-8050-3101-4.
Jones, Karen R. (2002). Wolf Mountains-A History of Wolves along the Great Divide. Calgary, Ontario: University of Calgary Press. ISBN 1-55238-072-6.
Smith, Douglas O. (September 2003). Management of Habituated Wolves in Yellowstone National Park (PDF) (Report). National Park Service.
Rydell, Kiki Leigh; Culpin, Mary Shivers (2006). Managing the "Matchless Wonders—A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park 1872–1965 (Report). Yellowstone Center for Resources.
Bangs, Ed; Barbee, Bob; Petersen, Rolf O. (Winter 2005). "Perspectives on Wolf Restoration" (PDF). Yellowstone Science. 13 (1): 4–6.
Smith, Douglas W. (Winter 2005). "Ten Years of Yellowstone Wolves, 1995–2005" (PDF). Yellowstone Science. 13 (1): 7–32.
White, P.J.; Smith, Douglas W. (Winter 2005). "Wolf EIS Predictions and Ten-Year Appraisals" (PDF). Yellowstone Science. 13 (1): 34–41.
"Technical Publications on Wolves, 1995–2004" (PDF). Yellowstone Science. 13 (1): 42–43. Winter 2005.
Duffield, John, Chris Neher, and David Patterson (September 2006). Wolves and People in Yellowstone: Impacts on the Regional Economy (PDF) (Report). Yellowstone Park Foundation. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
Smith, D.W., D.R. Stahler, E. Albers, M. Metz, L. Williamson, N. Ehlers, K. Cassidy, J. Irving, R. Raymond, E. Almberg, and R. McIntyre (2009). Yellowstone Wolf Project - 2008 Annual Report (PDF) (Report). Yellowstone Center for Resources, Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

text:
[show]

v
t
e

Yellowstone National Park – History and people

Historic events and personalities from Yellowstone National Park

Expeditions

Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition
Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition
Hayden Geological Survey of 1871

Explorers

Robert Adams Jr.
Jim Bridger
John Colter
Lt.Gustavus C. Doane
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 State of Idaho

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 State of Montana

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text: Yellowstone National ParkWolves in the United StatesFauna of the Rocky Mountains

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document_title: Viking expansion

question_text: when did the vikings first sail and reach britain

question_tokens: when did the vikings first sail and reach britain

root

text: Viking expansion

text: Motivation for expansion[edit]

text: There is much debate among historians about what drove the Viking expansion. One widely held idea is that it was a quest for retaliation against continental Europeans for their previous invasions of Viking homelands, such as Charlemagne's campaign to force Scandinavian pagans to convert to Christianity by killing any who refused to become baptized.[1][2][3][4][5] The historian Rudolf Simek has observed, "It is not a coincidence if the early Viking activity occurred during the reign of Charlemagne."[6][7] Those who favor this explanation point out that the penetration of Christianity into Scandinavia caused serious conflict and divided Norway for almost a century.[8] However, the first target of Viking raids was not the Frankish Kingdom, but Christian monasteries in England, which seems[to whom?] inconsistent with vengeance as a motive but would be consistent with religious warfare.

tag: p

text: Another idea is that the Viking population had exceeded the agricultural potential of their homeland. This may have been true of western Norway, where there were few reserves of land, but it is unlikely the rest of Scandinavia was experiencing famine.[9]

text: Alternatively, some scholars propose that the Viking expansion was driven by a youth bulge effect: since the eldest son of a family customarily inherited the family's entire estate, younger sons had to seek their fortune by emigrating or engaging in raids. Peter Sawyer suggests that most Vikings emigrated due the attractiveness of owning more land rather than the necessity of having it.[10]

text: However, no rise in population, youth bulge, or decline in agricultural production during this period has been definitively demonstrated. Nor is it clear why such pressures would have prompted expansion overseas rather than into the vast, uncultivated forest areas in the interior of the Scandinavian Peninsula, although perhaps emigration or sea raids may have been easier or more profitable than clearing large areas of forest for farm and pasture in a region with a limited growing season.

text: An idea that avoids these shortcomings is that the Scandinavians might have practiced selective procreation leading to a shortage of women, and that the Vikings main motive for emigration was to acquire wives, although this would not explain why the Vikings chose to settle in other countries rather than bringing the women back with them to Scandinavia.[11]

text: It is also possible that a decline in the profitability of old trade routes drove the Vikings to seek out new, more profitable ones. Trade between western Europe and the rest of Eurasia may have suffered after the Roman Empire lost its western provinces in the 5th century, and the expansion of Islam in the 7th century may have reduced trade opportunities within western Europe by redirecting resources along the Silk Road.[citation needed] Trade in the Mediterranean was at its lowest level in history when the Vikings began their expansion.[citation needed] The Viking expansion opened new trade routes in Arab and Frankish lands, and took control of trade markets previously dominated by the Frisians after the Franks' destroyed the Frisian fleet.[citation needed]

text: Settlement demographics[edit]

text: Viking settlements in Ireland and Great Britain are thought to have been primarily male enterprises, however some graves show nearly equal male/female distribution. Disagreement is partly due to method of classification; previous archaeology often guessed biological sex from burial artifacts, whereas modern archaeology may use osteology to find biological sex, and isotope analysis to find origin (DNA sampling is usually not possible).[12][13] The males buried during that period in a cemetery on the Isle of Man had mainly names of Norse origin, while the females there had names of indigenous origin. Irish and British women are mentioned in old texts on the founding of Iceland, indicating that the Viking explorers were accompanied there by women from the British Isles who either came along voluntarily or were taken along by force. Genetic studies of the population in the Western Isles and Isle of Skye also show that Viking settlements were established mainly by male Vikings who mated with women from the local populations of those places.[citation needed]

text: However, not all Viking settlements were primarily male. Genetic studies of the Shetland population suggest that family units consisting of Viking women as well as men were the norm among the migrants to these areas.[14]

text: This may be because areas like Shetland Island, being closer to Scandinavia, were more suitable targets for family migrations, while frontier settlements further north and west were more suitable for groups of unattached male colonizers.[15]

text: British Isles[edit]

text: England[edit]

text:
[show]

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Viking invasions of England

Great Heathen Army (865–78)

Englefield
Reading
Ashdown
Basing
Marton
Edington/Ethandun
Cynwit

The Danelaw

Buttington
First Stamford
The Holme
Tettenhall
Tempsford
Derby
Second Stamford
Corbridge
Brunanburh
Stainmore
Maldon
First Alton
St Brice's Day
Pinhoe
Ringmere

Cnut's invasion (1015–16)

Assandun
Brentford

Harald's invasion (1066)

Fulford
Stamford Bridge

tag: table

text: During the reign of King Beorhtric of Wessex (786–802) three ships of "Northmen" landed at Portland Bay in Dorset. The local reeve mistook the Vikings for merchants and directed them to the nearby royal estate, but the visitors killed him and his men.[16] The earliest recorded planned Viking raid, on 6 January 793,[17] targeted the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne, off the north-east coast of Northumbria. According to the 12th-century Anglo-Norman chronicler Symeon of Durham, the raiders killed the resident monks or threw them into the sea to drown or carried them away as slaves—along with some of the church treasures.[18] In 875, after enduring eight decades of repeated Viking raids, the monks fled Lindisfarne, carrying the relics of Saint Cuthbert with them.

text: In 794, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a small Viking fleet attacked a rich monastery at Jarrow. The Vikings met with stronger resistance than they had expected: their leaders were killed. The raiders escaped, only to have their ships beached at Tynemouth and the crews killed by locals.[19] This represented one of the last raids on England for about 40 years. The Vikings focused instead on Ireland and Scotland.

text: In 865 a group of hitherto uncoordinated bands of predominantly Danish Vikings joined together to form a large army and landed in East Anglia. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described this force as the Great Heathen Army and went onto say that it was led by Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan.[20][21] [22] [23] The army crossed the Midlands into Northumbria and captured York (Jorvik). In 871 the Great Heathen army was reinforced by what was known as the Great Summer Army, one of its leaders was Guthrum. In 875 the Great Heathen Army split into two bands, with Guthrum leading one back to Wessex, and Hafdan taking his followers north.[24][25] Then in 876, Halfdan shared out Northumbrian land amongst his men, who "ploughed the land and supported themselves"; this land was part of what became known as the Danelaw. [25] Most of the English kingdoms, being in turmoil, could not stand against the Vikings, but King Alfred of Wessex defeated Guthrum's army at the Battle of Edington in 878. There followed the Treaty of Wedmore the same year and the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum in 886. These treaties formalised the boundaries of the English kingdoms and the Viking Danelaw territory, with provisions for peaceful relations between the English and the Vikings. Despite these treaties, conflict continued on and off. However, Alfred and his successors eventually drove back the Viking frontier and retook York.[26]

text: A new wave of Vikings appeared in England in 947, when Erik Bloodaxe captured York.[27] The Viking presence continued through the reign of the Danish prince Cnut the Great (reigned as King of England: 1016–1035), after which a series of inheritance arguments weakened the hold on power of Cnut's heirs.

text: When King Edward the Confessor died in 1066, the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada challenged his successor as King of England, Harold Godwinson. Hardrada was killed, and his Norwegian army defeated, by Harold Godwinson on 25 September 1066 at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.[28] Harold Godwinson himself died when William the Conqueror defeated the English army at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066. William was crowned king of England on 25 December 1066, however it was several years before he was able to bring the kingdom under his complete control.[29] In 1070 the Danish king Sweyn Estridsson sailed up the Humber with an army in support of Edgar the Ætheling, the last surviving male member of the English royal family. However, after capturing York, Sweyn accepted a payment from William to desert Edgar.[29][30] Five years later one of Sweyn's sons set sail for England to support another English rebellion, but it had been crushed before the expedition arrived, so they settled for plundering the city of York and the surrounding area before returning home.[29] In 1085 Sweyn's son, now Canute IV of Denmark planned a major invasion against England but the assembled fleet never sailed. No further serious Danish invasions or raids on England occurred after this.[29]

text: Note that not all the Norse arriving in Ireland and Great Britain came as raiders. Many arrived with families and livestock, often in the wake of the capture of territory by their forces.[31] The populations then merged over time by intermarriage into the Anglo-Saxon population of these areas.[32] Many words in the English language come from old Scandinavian languages, showing the importance of this contact.[33]

text: Scotland[edit]

text: The monastery at Iona on the west coast was first raided in 794, and had to be abandoned some fifty years later after several devastating attacks. While there are few records from the earliest period, it is believed that Scandinavian presence in Scotland increased in the 830s.

text: The isles to the north and west of Scotland were heavily colonised by Norwegian Vikings. Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides came under Norse control, sometimes as fiefs under the King of Norway, and at other times as separate entities under variously the Kings of the Isles, the Earldom of Orkney and the later Kings of Mann and the Isles. Shetland and Orkney were the last of these to be incorporated into Scotland in as late as 1468.

text: Wales[edit]

text: Wales was not colonized by the Vikings significantly as in eastern England. The Vikings did, however, settle in small numbers in the south around St Davids, Haverfordwest, and the Gower. Place names such as Skokholm, Skomer, and Swansea remain as evidence of the Norse settlement.[34] The Vikings, however, were not able to set up a Viking state or control Wales, owing to the powerful forces of Welsh kings, and, unlike in Scotland, the aristocracy was relatively unharmed.

text: Nevertheless, following the successful Viking alliance with Britanny in 865, the Britons made their peace with the Danes, and a Viking/Welsh alliance in 878 defeated an Anglo-Saxon army from Mercia. Although the Welsh had been longtime enemies of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, their relationship with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex was somewhat warmer.[35] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 893, for example, refers to Vikings being pursued by a combined force of West Saxons and north Welsh along the River Severn.[36] The combined Anglo-Saxon and Welsh army eventually overtook the Vikings before defeating them at the Battle of Buttington.[37]

text: The city of Swansea was founded by Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, who by 1013 was King of the Danes, Anglo-Saxons and Norwegians. The English name for the town derives from Old Norse: Sveinsey, meaning "Sweyn's island". The island refers to the area around the estuary of the river Tawe.[citation needed] The neighboring Gower Peninsula has some place names of Norse origin. For example, Worm's Head is from Old Norse: ormr, the word for snake or dragon, as the Vikings believed that the serpent-shaped island was a sleeping dragon. Some twenty miles (32 kilometres) west of Cardiff on the Vale of Glamorgan coast is the semi-flooded island of Tusker Rock, which takes its name from Tuska, the Viking who established a settlement in the area.

text: Cornwall[edit]

text: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported that heathen men (the Danes) raided Charmouth, Dorset in 833 AD, then in 997 AD they destroyed the Dartmoor town of Lydford, and from 1001 AD to 1003 AD they occupied the old Roman city of Exeter.[38]

text: The Cornish were subjugated by King Æthelstan, of England, in 936 and the border finally set at the River Tamar. However, the Cornish remained semi-autonomous until their annexation into England after the Norman Conquest.[39]

text: Ireland[edit]

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Viking wars in Ireland

Strangford Loch (877)
Cenn Fuait (915)
Mag Femen (917)
Áth Cliath (919)
Sulcoit (968)
Luimnech (968)
Cathair Cuan (977)
Tara (980)
Glenmama (999)
Clontarf (1014)

text: The Vikings conducted extensive raids in Ireland and founded many towns, including Dublin, Limerick, Wexford, Waterford, Wicklow, Arklow and Leixlip. Literature, crafts, and decorative styles in Ireland and Britain reflected Scandinavian culture. Vikings traded at Irish markets in Dublin. Excavations found imported fabrics from England, Byzantium, Persia, and central Asia. Dublin became so crowded by the 11th century that houses were built outside the town walls.

text: The Vikings pillaged monasteries on Ireland's west coast in 795, and then spread out to cover the rest of the coastline. The north and east of the island were most affected. During the first 40 years, the raids were conducted by small, mobile Viking groups. From 830 on, the groups consisted of large fleets of Viking ships. From 840, the Vikings began establishing permanent bases at the coasts. Dublin was the most significant settlement in the long term. The Irish became accustomed to the Viking presence and culture. In some cases they became allies and also intermarried.

text: In 832, a Viking fleet of about 120 ships under Turgesius invaded kingdoms on Ireland's northern and eastern coasts. Some believe that the increased number of invaders coincided with Scandinavian leaders' desires to control the profitable raids on the western shores of Ireland. During the mid-830s, raids began to push deeper into Ireland. Navigable waterways made this deeper penetration possible. After 840, the Vikings had several bases in strategic locations throughout Ireland.

text: In 838, a small Viking fleet entered the River Liffey in eastern Ireland, probably led by the chieftain Saxolb (Soxulfr) who was killed later that year.[40] The Vikings set up a base, which the Irish called longphorts. This longphort would eventually become Dublin. After this interaction, the Irish experienced Viking forces for about 40 years. The Vikings also established longphorts in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Wexford. The Vikings were driven out of Ireland for a short period around 900, but returned to Waterford in 914 to found what would become Ireland's first city. The other longphorts were soon re-occupied and developed into cities and towns.

text: The last major Irish battle involving Vikings was the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, in which a large force from the pan-Viking world and their Irish allies opposed Brian Boru, then the High King of Ireland and his forces, a small contingent of which were Viking defectors. The battle was fought in what is the now Dublin suburb of Clontarf on Good Friday of that year. Boru, the Irish High King had allowed the Viking King of Dublin; Sigtrygg Silkbeard, one year to prepare for his coming assault. Silkbeard responded by offering the bed of his mother to several Viking lords from Scandinavia, Ireland and Britain. The savage mêlée between the heavily mailed Norse and the unarmoured, yet undaunted Gaels ended in a rout of the Vikings and their Irish allies. Careful accounts were taken by both sides during the battle, and thus many famous warriors sought each other out for personal combat and glory. High King Brian, who was nearly eighty, did not personally engage in the battle but retired to his tent where he spent the day in quiet prayer. The Viking Brodir of Man chanced upon Brian's tent as he fled the field. He and a few followers seized the opportunity, and surprised the High King, killing the aged Brian before being captured. Brian's foster son Wolf the Quarrelsome later tracked down and dispatched Brodir by disembowelment. Wolf watching as Brodir marched and wound his own innards around the trunk of a large tree. The battle was fairly matched for most of the day and each side had great respect for the prowess of the other; however, in the end, the Irish forced the Norse to return to the sea. Many of the fleeing Vikings were drowned in the surf due to their heavy mail coats as they struggled for the safety of their longships; others were pursued and slain further inland. After the battle, Viking power was broken in Ireland forever, though many settled Norse remained in the cities and prospered greatly with the Irish through trade. With Brian dead, Ireland returned to the fractured kingdom it had once been, but was now cleared of further Viking predation.

text: Europe and Asia[edit]

text: Normandy[edit]

text: The name of Normandy itself denotes the Viking origin. After their settlement when it became known as "Northmannia" or Land of The Norsemen.

text: The Viking presence in Normandy began with raids into the territory of the Frankish Empire, from the middle of 9th century. Viking raids extended deep into the Frankish territory, and included the sacking of many prominent towns such as Rouen, Paris and the abbey at Jumieges. The inability of the Frankish king Charles the Bald, and later Charles the Simple, to prevent these Viking incursions forced them to offer vast payments of silver and gold to prevent any further pillage. These pay-offs were short lived of course, and the Danish raiders would always return for more.

text: The Duchy of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Rollo after he had besieged Paris. In 911, Rollo entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks Charles the Simple through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. This treaty made of Rollo the first Norman Count of Rouen. In addition, Rollo was to be baptized and marry Gisele, the illegitimate daughter of Charles. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory which he and his Viking allies had previously conquered.

text: The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance languages and intermarried with the area's original inhabitants. They became the Normans – a Norman French-speaking mixture of Scandinavians and indigenous Franks and Gauls. The language of Normandy heavily reflected the Danish influence, as many words (especially ones pertaining to seafaring) were borrowed from Old Norse[41] or Old Danish.[42] More than the language itself, the Norman toponymy retains a strong Nordic influence. Nevertheless, only a few archaeological traces have been found: swords dredged out of the Seine river between its estuary and Rouen, the tomb of a female Viking at Pîtres, the two Thor's hammers at Saint-Pierre-de-Varengeville[43] and more recently the horde of Viking coins at Saint-Pierre-des-Fleurs.[44]

text: Rollo's descendant William, Duke of Normandy (the Conqueror) became King of England after he defeated Harold Godwinson and his army at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066. As king of England, he retained the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants. The kings of England made claim to Normandy, as well as their other possessions in France, which led to various disputes with the French. This culminated in the French confiscation of Gascony that precipitated what became known as the Hundred Years' War, in 1337.[45]

text: West Francia and Middle Francia[edit]

text: West Francia and Middle Francia suffered more severely than East Francia during the Viking raids of the 9th century. The reign of Charles the Bald coincided with some of the worst of these raids, though he did take action by the Edict of Pistres of 864 to secure a standing army of cavalry under royal control to be called upon at all times when necessary to fend off the invaders. He also ordered the building of fortified bridges to prevent inland raids.

text: Nonetheless, the Bretons allied with the Vikings and Robert, the margrave of Neustria, (a march created for defence against the Vikings sailing up the Loire), and Ranulf of Aquitaine died in the Battle of Brissarthe in 865. The Vikings also took advantage of the civil wars which ravaged the Duchy of Aquitaine in the early years of Charles' reign. In the 840s, Pepin II called in the Vikings to aid him against Charles and they settled at the mouth of the Garonne as they did by the Loire. Two dukes of Gascony, Seguin II and William I, died defending Bordeaux from Viking assaults. A later duke, Sancho Mitarra, even settled some at the mouth of the Adour near Bayonne in an act presaging that of Charles the Simple and the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte by which the Vikings were settled in Rouen, creating Normandy as a bulwark against other Vikings.

text: In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Vikings raided the largely defenceless Frisian and Frankish towns lying on the coast and along the rivers of the Low Countries. Although Vikings never settled in large numbers in those areas, they did set up long-term bases and were even acknowledged as lords in a few cases. They set up bases in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil at the mouth of the Loire, in Taillebourg on the mid Charente, also around Bayonne on the banks of the Adour, in Noirmoutier and obviously on the River Seine (Rouen) in what would become Normandy.

text: Antwerp was raided in 836. Later there were raids of Ghent, Kortrijk, Tournai, Leuven and the areas around the Meuse river, the Rhine, the Rupel river and the tributaries of those rivers. Raids were conducted from bases established in Asselt, Walcheren, Wieringen and Elterberg (or Eltenberg, a small hill near Elten). In Dutch and Frisian historical tradition, the trading centre of Dorestad declined after Viking raids from 834 to 863; however, since no convincing Viking archaeological evidence has been found at the site (as of 2007[update]), doubts about this have grown in recent years.

text: One of the most important Viking families in the Low Countries was that of Rorik of Dorestad (based in Wieringen) and his brother Harald (based in Walcheren). Around 850, Lothair I acknowledged Rorik as ruler of most of Friesland. And again in 870 Rorik was received by Charles the Bald in Nijmegen, to whom he became a vassal. Viking raids continued during this period. Harald's son Rodulf and his men were killed by the people of Oostergo in 873. Rorik died sometime before 882.

text: Buried Viking treasures consisting mainly of silver have been found in the Low Countries. Two such treasures have been found in Wieringen. A large treasure found in Wieringen in 1996 dates from around 850 and is thought perhaps to have been connected to Rorik. The burial of such a valuable treasure is seen as an indication that there was a permanent settlement in Wieringen.[46]

text: Around 879, Godfrid arrived in Frisian lands as the head of a large force that terrorised the Low Countries. Using Ghent as his base, they ravaged Ghent, Maastricht, Liège, Stavelot, Prüm, Cologne, and Koblenz. Controlling most of Frisia between 882 and his death in 885, Godfrid became known to history as Godfrid, Duke of Frisia. His lordship over Frisia was acknowledged by Charles the Fat, to whom he became a vassal. In the siege of Asselt in 882, the Franks sieged a Viking camp at Asselt in Frisia. Although the Vikings were not forced by arms to abandon their camp, they were compelled to come to terms in which their leader, Godfrid, was converted to Christianity. Godfrid was assassinated in 885, after which Gerolf of Holland assumed lordship and Viking rule of Frisia came to an end.

text: Viking raids of the Low Countries continued for over a century. Remains of Viking attacks dating from 880 to 890 have been found in Zutphen and Deventer. The last attacks took place in Tiel in 1006 and Utrecht in 1007.

text: Italy[edit]

text: In 860, according to an account by the Norman monk Dudo of Saint-Quentin, a Viking fleet, probably under Björn Ironside and Hastein, landed at the Ligurian port of Luni and sacked the city. The Vikings then moved another 60 miles (97 kilometres) down the Tuscan coast to the mouth of the Arno, sacking Pisa and then, following the river upstream, also the hill-town of Fiesole above Florence and other victories around the Mediterranean (including in Sicily and North Africa).[47]

text: Many Norsemen fought as mercenaries in Southern Italy, including the Varangian Guard led by Harald Hardrada, who later became king of Norway, who conquered Sicily between 1038 and 1040, with the help of Norman mercenaries, under William de Hauteville, who won his nickname Iron Arm by defeating the emir of Syracuse in single combat, and a Lombard contingent, led by Arduin.[48][49] The Varangians were first used as mercenaries in Italy against the Arabs in 936.[50] Runestones were raised in Sweden in memory of warriors who died in Langbarðaland (Land of the Lombards), the Old Norse name for southern Italy.[51]

text: Later several Anglo-Danish and Norwegian nobles participated in the Norman conquest of southern Italy, like Edgar the Ætheling, who left England in 1086,[52] and Jarl Erling Skakke, who won his nickname after a battle against Arabs in Sicily.[53] On the other hand, many Anglo-Danish rebels fleeing William the Conqueror, joined the Byzantines in their struggle against the Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, in Southern Italy.[54]

text: Iberian Peninsula[edit]

text: Galicia[edit]

text: The presence of Vikings in Galicia took place at the earliest by the mid-ninth century though apparently not before[56], and no later than the twelfth century, when Vikings from Scandinavia were a naval and military power, launching expeditions of plunder and conquest by the Atlantic coast and European rivers, looting cities and settlements. The Vikings extended their journeys all the way to the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, and on the way they raided Galicia. In contemporary texts, the Vikings are often referred to as normandos or lordimani.

text: Our knowledge of Vikings in Spain is mainly based on written accounts. There are archeological findings of anchors of Viking ships, and some shapes of mounds by riversides look similar to the Norse longphorts in Ireland. These were ports or docks for Viking longships.[57]

text: First invasion[edit]

text: The first incursion of the Vikings in Galicia is mentioned in Annales Bertiniani, and dated August 844, when a group from a plundering expedition entered the Garonne and reached Galicia pushed by a storm. After plundering a number of coastal villages they were ultimately repulsed in the vicinity of Farum Brecantium i.e., the Tower of Hercules (called by them FAR). Ramiro I of Asturias who was king of Asturias at the time, gathered troops in Galicia and Asturia for the counter-attack. After the Asturian victory, the Vikings continued their voyage in direction of Lisbon.[58][59] According to Fletcher "Alfonso III was sufficiently worried by the threat of Viking attack to establish fortified strong points near his coastline, as other rulers were doing elsewhere."

text: A legend also explains that when the Vikings arrived at the mouth of the river Masma, the holy Bishop of the diocese of Gonzalo Bretoña prayed for protection from the heavens against the forthcoming attack. A major storm was unleashed, sinking most of the fleet and a large number of Vikings fled in their ships.

text: Second invasion[edit]

text: Vikings returned to Galicia in 859, during the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias.[58] It was a contingent of a hundred ships from looting expeditions by the French coast that was now directed toward the Arousa estuary. After looting Iria Flavia they continued to Santiago de Compostela, where they laid siege.[clarification needed] Their neighbours[clarification needed] had paid tribute to avoid looting, but in spite of this, the Vikings tried to enter the city[clarification needed]. They were faced with an army led by Don Pedro who dispersed them and destroyed thirty eight of their ships; after which the surviving Vikings went south. As a result of this expedition the episcopal see of Iria relocated to Santiago de Compostela. In 861, a group of Vikings ransomed García Íñiguez, king of Pamplona, whom they had captured the previous year, for 60,000 gold pieces.

text: Later invasions[edit]

text: In 951, the Vikings reappeared and attacked the Galician coast. Galician cities would then strengthen their defenses over the following years. In 964, the Vikings arrived again in Galicia, because the own bishop of Mondonedo, Rosendo of Celanova, they had to face.[clarification needed] In 968 Bishop Sisnando Menéndez of Compostela was killed, the monastery of Curtis was sacked, and measures were ordered for the defense of the inland town of Lugo.

text: The expedition of 1015 was led by Olaf Haraldsson, who later became king Olaf II of Norway. He destroyed four settlements: Castropol, Betanzos, Rivas de Sil and Tui.[60] After Tui was sacked its bishopric remained vacant for the next half-century.

text: Raiding continued for the next two centuries. Ransom was a motive for abductions: Fletcher instances Amarelo Mestáliz, who was forced to raise money on the security of his land in order to ransom his daughters who had been captured by the Vikings in 1015. Bishop Cresconio of Compostela (ca. 1036 – 66) repulsed a Viking foray and built the fortress at Torres do Oeste (Council of Catoira) to protect Compostela from the Atlantic approaches.

text: Islamic Iberia[edit]

text: While connections between the Norse and Eastern Islamic lands (particularly around the Caspian) were well-established (in the form of the Rus') along the Volga, relations with the Western edge of Islam were more sporadic and haphazard.[61] Islamic Iberia, the first navy of the Emirate of Córdoba[61] was built after the humiliating Viking ascent of the Guadalquivir in 844 when they sacked Seville.[62] Nevertheless, in 859, Danish pirates sailed through Gibraltar and raided the little Moroccan state of Nekor. The king's harem had to be ransomed back by the emir of Córdoba. These and other raids prompted a shipbuilding program at the dockyards of Seville. The Andalusian navy was thenceforth employed to patrol the Iberian coastline under the caliphs Abd-ar-Rahman III (912–961) and Al-Hakam II (961–976). Córdoba was too heavily defended to be considered a target for all but the most ambitious Vikings.[63] By the next century, piracy from North Africans superseded Viking raids.

text: In 844 the Vikings attacked Al-Andalus, the administrative area of the Iberian Peninsula ruled by Muslims. They sacked Lisbon, Cádiz and Medina Sidonia, and then captured Seville. However, the Muslims counterattacked and defeated them. The survivors fled. The Vikings carried out further raids on Al-Andalus but the Muslims fought back effectively.

text: The Vikings retreated and in the next weeks they looted Lisbon before advancing on the river Guadalquivir and occupying Sevilla for forty-two days.[64] But the Blammen ("Black Men", Arabs) defeated a large host (allegedly 16,000) at Moron[65] and the Vikings retreated from Sevilla.[65] Before retreating they ransomed their hostages, taking only clothes and food.[66]

text: Aside from Viking raids in the Islamic Mediterranean, there were also sustained diplomatic relations between the Vikings (referred to as "Madjus" in Arabic sources[59]) and the Islamic world.[67] The Arab diplomat Al-Ghazal ("the gazelle") was dispatched to the court of the Danish King Harek at Hleiðra in 844 (as recounted in Ibn-Dihya[68]) to make peace with the Danes following their defeat at Sevilla.[68] He was reported back in Córdoba twenty months later.[69] Additionally, a century later the Arab merchant Abraham ben Jacob (also known as Al-Tartushi ) was reported to have travelled to the Viking trading town of Hedeby in Schleswig.[70]

text: In 860, a new fleet of sixty-two ships[71] led by Hastein and Björn Ironside.[70] attacked Galicia (northwestern Spain), the Portuguese shores and Sevilla.[71] The fleet then crossed over to Africa and sacked Nekor.[71] They then returned to Iberia, stopping at the Balearic Islands,[72] and attacked Pamplona after crossing the Ebru river and captured the king of Navarra, García Íñiguez, who paid a ransom for his release.

text: In 966 Lisbon was again raided by the Norse, this time with a fleet of 28 ships.[73]

text: Another great campaign took place in 968. The Norman jarl Gundraed attacked Galicia with 100 ships and 8,000 warriors.[74] They roamed freely for years and even occupied Santiago de Compostela, but the Vikings were finally defeated by the troops of the count Gonzalo Sanchez in 971.

text: Islamic Levant[edit]

text: The well-known Harald Hardrada would also serve the Byzantine emperor in Palestine as well as raiding North Africa, the Middle East as far east as Armenia, and the island of Sicily in the 11th century, as recounted in his saga in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla.[75]

text: Evidence for Norse ventures into Arabia and Central Asia can be found in runestones erected in Scandinavia by the relatives of fallen Viking adventurers. Several of these refer to men who died in "Serkland" (Arabia)[76]

text: Meanwhile, in the Eastern Mediterranean the Norse (referred to as Rus') were viewed more as "merchant-warriors" who were primarily associated with trade and business.[70] In particular, Arab scholars such as Ibn-Fadlan recount Norse trade expeditions to Baghdad, a major center of the Islamic world.[70] Indeed, one of the only detailed accounts of a Viking burial come from Ibn-Fadlan's account.[77] At times this trading relationship would break down into violence – Rus' armadas raided in the Caspian on at least three occasions, in 910, 912 and 943.[70]

text: Eastern Europe[edit]

text: The Vikings settled coastal areas along the Baltic Sea, and along inland rivers in Russian territories such as Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod and along major waterways to the Byzantine Empire.

text: The Varangians or Varyags (Russian, Ukrainian: Варяги, Varyagi) sometimes referred to as Variagians were Scandinavians who migrated eastwards and southwards through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine mainly in the 9th and 10th centuries. Engaging in trade, colonization, piracy and mercenary activities, they roamed the river systems and portages of Garðaríki, reaching and settling at the Caspian Sea and in Constantinople.

text: The real involvement of the Varangians came after they were asked by the Slavic tribes of the region to come and establish order, as those tribes were in constant warfare among each other ("Our country is rich and immense, but it is rent by disorder. Come and govern us and reign over us."[78]). The tribes were united and ruled under the leadership of Rurik, a leader of a group of Varangians. Rurik had successfully been able to establish a set of trading towns and posts along the Volga and Dnieper Rivers, which were perfect for trade with the Byzantine Empire. Rurik's successors were able to conquer and unite the towns along the banks of the Volga and Dnieper Rivers, and establish the Rus' Khaganate. Despite the distinction of the Varangians from the local Slavic tribes at the beginning, by the 10th century, the Varangians began to integrate with the local community, and by the end of 12th century, a new people — the Russians, have emerged.

text: Vikings in Georgia[edit]

text: Separated by several thousand kilometers, medieval Georgia and Scandinavia, surprisingly, had a common link. Around 1036, Varangians appeared near the village of Bashi on the Rioni River, to establish a permanent settlement of Vikings in Georgia (Georgian: ვიკინგები საქართველოში).

text: The old Georgian chronicle Kartlis Tskhovreba described them as 3,000 men who had traveled from Scandinavia through present-day Russia, rowing down the Dniepr River and across the Black Sea. King Bagrat IV welcomed them to Georgia and accepted some of them into the Georgian army; several hundred Vikings fought on Bagrat's side at the Battle of Sasireti in 1047.

text: Other Vikings continued westward, thereafter disappearing from history. Swedish researchers recently suggested that the story in the Georgian chronicle was about the Swedish expedition by the Viking chieftain Ingvar den Vittfarne (Ingvar the Far-Traveled), which features in many rune stones in mid-Sweden.

text: Northern Atlantic[edit]

text: Iceland[edit]

text: Iceland was discovered by Naddodd, one of the first settlers on the Faroe Islands, who was sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands but got lost and drifted to the east coast of Iceland. Naddoddr named the country Snæland (Snowland). Swedish sailor Garðar Svavarsson also accidentally drifted to the coast of Iceland. He discovered that the country was an island and named it Garðarshólmi (literally Garðar's Islet) and stayed for the winter at Húsavík. The first Scandinavian who deliberately sailed to Garðarshólmi was Flóki Vilgerðarson, also known as Hrafna-Flóki (Raven-Flóki). Flóki settled for one winter at Barðaströnd. It was a cold winter, and when he spotted some drift ice in the fjords he gave the island its current name, Ísland (Iceland).

text: Iceland was first settled around 870.[79] The first permanent settler in Iceland is usually considered to have been a Norwegian chieftain named Ingólfr Arnarson. According to the story, he threw two carved pillars overboard as he neared land, vowing to settle wherever they landed. He then sailed along the coast until the pillars were found in the southwestern peninsula, now known as Reykjanesskagi. There he settled with his family around 874, in a place he named Reykjavík (Bay of Smokes) due to the geothermal steam rising from the earth. It is recognized, however, that Ingólfur Arnarson may not have been the first one to settle permanently in Iceland — that may have been Náttfari, a slave of Garðar Svavarsson who stayed behind when his master returned to Scandinavia.

text: Greenland[edit]

text: In the year 985, Erik the Red was believed to have discovered Greenland after being exiled from Iceland for murder in 982. Three years later in 986, Erik the Red returned with 14 ships surviving ships (as 25 set out on the expedition).Two areas along Greenland's southwest coast were colonized by Norse settlers, including Erik the Red, around 986.[80][81] The land was at best marginal for Norse pastoral farming. The settlers arrived during a warm phase, when short-season crops such as rye and barley could be grown. Sheep and hardy cattle were also raised for food, wool, and hides. Their main export was walrus ivory, which was traded for iron and other goods which could not be produced locally. Greenland became a dependency of the king of Norway in 1261. During the 13th century, the population may have reached as high as 5,000, divided between the two main settlements of Eystribygð (Eastern Settlement) and Vestribygð (Western Settlement). The organization of these settlements revolved mainly around religion, and they consisted of around 250 farms, which were split into approximately fourteen communities that were centered around fourteen churches,[82] one of which was a cathedral at Garðar. The Catholic diocese of Greenland was subject to the archdiocese of Nidaros. However, many bishops chose to exercise this office from afar. As the years wore on, the climate shifted (see Little Ice Age). In 1379 the northernmost settlement was attacked by the Skrælings (Norse word for Inuit).[83] Crops failed and trade declined. The Greenland colony gradually faded away. By 1450 it had lost contact with Norway and Iceland and disappeared from all but a few Scandinavian legends.[84]

text: North America[edit]

text: A Norwegian ship's captain named Bjarni Herjólfsson first came across a part of the North American continent ca. 985 when he was blown off course sailing to Greenland from Iceland. Subsequent expeditions from Greenland (some led by Leif Ericson) explored the areas to the west, seeking large timbers for building in particular (Greenland had only small trees and brush). Regular activity from Greenland extended to Ellesmere Island, Skraeling Island and Ruin Island for hunting and trading with Inuit groups. A short-lived seasonal settlement was established at L'Anse aux Meadows, located in the northern part of Newfoundland, Canada. Since 2012, five other potential settlements have been discovered ranging from Tanfield Valley in the north to Point Rosee in the south.

text: The Greenlanders called the new-found territory Vinland. It is unclear whether Vinland referred to in the traditionally thinking as Vínland (wine-land) or more recently as Vinland (meadow- or pasture-land). In any case, without any official backing, attempts at colonization by the Norse proved failures. There were simply too many natives for the Greenlanders to conquer or withstand and they withdrew to Greenland.

text: Svalbard[edit]

text: Vikings may have discovered Svalbard as early as the 12th century. Traditional Norse accounts exist of a land known as Svalbarð - literally "cold shores". (But this land might also have been Jan Mayen, or a part of eastern Greenland.) The Dutchman Willem Barents made the first indisputable discovery of Svalbard in 1596.

text: Genetic evidence and implications[edit]

text: Studies of genetic diversity have provided scientific confirmation to accompany archaeological evidence of Viking expansion. They additionally indicate patterns of ancestry, imply new migrations, and show the actual flow of individuals between disparate regions. However, attempts to determine historical population genetics are complicated by subsequent migrations and demographic fluctuations. In particular, the rapid migrations of the 20th century has made it difficult to assess what prior genetic states were.

text: Genetic evidence contradicts the common perception that Vikings were primarily pillagers and raiders. A news article by Roger Highfield summarizes recent research and concludes that, as both male and female genetic markers are present, the evidence is indicative of colonization instead of raiding and occupying. However, this is also disputed by unequal ratios of male and female haplotypes (see below) which indicate that more men settled than women, an element of a raiding or occupying population.

text: Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome Haplotypes[edit]

text: Y-chromosome haplotypes serve as markers of paternal lineage much the same as mDNA represents the maternal lineage. Together, these two methods provide an option for tracing back a people's genetic history and charting the historical migrations of both males and females.

text: Often considered the purest remnants of ancient Nordic genetics, Icelanders trace 75–80% of their patrilineal ancestry to Scandinavia and 20–25% to Scotland and Ireland.[85][86] On the maternal side, only 37% is from Scandinavia and the remaining 63% is mostly Scottish and Irish.[86][87] Iceland also holds one of the most well-documented lineage records which, in many cases, go back fifteen generations and at least 300 years. These are accompanied by one of the largest genetic records which have been collected by deCODE genetics. Together, these two records allow for a mostly reliable view of historical Scandinavian genetic structure although the genetics of Iceland are influenced by Norse-British migration as well as that directly from Scandinavia.[citation needed]

text: Common Y-Haplogroups[edit]

text: Haplogroup I1 is the most common haplotype among Scandinavian males. It is present in 35% of males in Norway, Denmark and Sweden; 40% of males within Western Finland.[88] It is also prominent on the Baltic and North Sea coasts, but decreases further south.[citation needed]

text: Haplogroup R1b is another very common haplotype in all of Western Europe. However, it is not distinctly linked to Vikings or their expansion. There are indications that a mutant strand, R-L165, may have been carried to Great Britain by the Vikings,[89] but the topic is currently inconclusive.

text: The mitochondrial C1 haplotype is primarily an East Asia-American haplotype that developed just prior to migration across the Bering sea.[90][91] This maternal haplotype, however, was found in several Icelandic samples.[85] While originally considered to be a 20th-century immigrant,[85] a more complete analysis has shown that this haplotype has been present in Iceland for at least 300 years and is distinct from other C1 lineages.[92] This evidence indicates a likely genetic exchange back and forth between Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland.[citation needed]

text: Surname Histories and the Y-Haplotype[edit]

text: There is evidence suggesting Y-Haplotypes may be combined with surname histories to better represent historical populations and prevent recent migrations from obscuring the historical record.[32]

text: Cys282Tyr (or C282Y) is a mutation in the HFE gene that has been linked to most cases of hereditary hemochromatosis. Genetic techniques indicate that this mutation occurred roughly 60–70 generations ago or between 600 and 800 CE, assuming a generation length of 20 years.[93][94] The regional distribution of this mutation among European populations indicates that it originated in Southern Scandinavia and spread with Viking expansion.[95] Due to the timing of the mutation and subsequent population movements, C282Y is very prominent in Great Britain, Normandy, and Southern Scandinavia although C282Y has been found in almost every population that has been in contact with the Vikings.[95]


document_title: Amount in controversy

question_text: what is the minimum dollar amount for federal court

text: Amount in controversy

text: United States[edit]

text:
United States Federal
Civil Procedure doctrines

Justiciability

Advisory opinions
Standing
Ripeness
Mootness
Political questions

Jurisdiction

Subject-matter

Federal-question
Diversity
Amount in controversy
Supplemental
Removal
Class Action Fairness Act of 2005

Personal

In personam
In rem
Quasi in rem

Federalism

Erie doctrine
Abstention

Sovereign immunity
Abrogation

Rooker–Feldman doctrine

Adequate and independent
state ground

v
t
e

text: In federal courts[edit]

text: Diversity jurisdiction[edit]

text: In United States federal courts, the term currently applies only to cases brought under diversity jurisdiction, meaning that the court is able to hear the case only because it is between citizens of different states. In such cases, the U.S. Congress has decreed in 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) that the court may hear such suits only where "the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $75,000." This amount represents a significant increase from earlier years.

text: Congress first established the amount in controversy requirement when it created diversity jurisdiction in the Judiciary Act of 1789, pursuant to its powers under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, the amount being $500. It was raised to $2,000 in 1887, to $3,000 in 1911, to $10,000 in 1958, to $50,000 in 1988, and finally to the current $75,000 in 1996.

text: The use of the word "exceeds" in Section 1332 implies that the amount in controversy must be more than $75,000; a case removed from state court to federal court must be remanded back to state court if the amount in controversy is exactly $75,000.00.[1]

text: Federal question jurisdiction[edit]

text: Congress did not create a consistent federal question jurisdiction, which allows federal courts to hear any case alleging a violation of the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States, until 1875, when Congress created the statute which is now found at 28 U.S.C. § 1331: "The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States." At that time, such cases had the same amount in controversy requirement as the diversity cases. Congress eliminated this requirement in actions against the United States in 1976 and in all federal question cases in 1980.

text: Aggregation of claims[edit]

text: Where a single plaintiff has multiple unrelated claims against a single defendant, that plaintiff can aggregate those claims – that is, add the amounts together – to satisfy the amount in controversy requirement. In cases involving more than one defendant, a plaintiff may aggregate the amount claimed against multiple defendants “only if the defendants are jointly liable.” Middle Tennessee News Co., Inc. v. Charnel of Cincinnati, Inc., 250 F.3d 1077, 1081 (7th Cir. 2001). However, “if the defendants are severally liable, plaintiff must satisfy the amount in controversy requirement against each individual defendant.” The 5-4 decision in Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Services, Inc., 545 U.S. 546 (2005), held that a federal court has supplemental jurisdiction over claims of other plaintiffs who do not meet the jurisdictional amount for a diversity action, when at least one plaintiff in the action does satisfy the jurisdictional amount.

text: Legal certainty test[edit]

text: The standard for dismissing a complaint for lack of meeting the amount in controversy is a rather high one in federal court. In 1938, Justice Owen Roberts set forth the "legal-certainty test",[2] which is still used today:

text: It must appear to a legal certainty that the claim is really for less than the jurisdictional amount to justify dismissal. The inability of plaintiff to recover an amount adequate to give the court jurisdiction does not show his bad faith or oust the jurisdiction. Nor does the fact that the complaint discloses the existence of a valid defense to the claim. But if, from the face of the pleadings, it is apparent to a legal certainty that the plaintiff cannot recover the amount claimed or if, from the proofs, the court is satisfied to a like certainty that the plaintiff never was entitled to recover that amount, and that his claim was therefore colorable for the purpose of conferring jurisdiction, the suit will be dismissed.[3]

text: The validity of the amount of damages claimed is considered a threshold issue of law for a judge to decide at the commencement of the case.[4]

text: The legal certainty test is often heavily litigated in personal injury or wrongful death cases, in the situation where they are removed by a defendant to federal court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction, and then the plaintiff moves to remand to state court. Since the 1970s, many states have prohibited plaintiffs in such cases from demanding a specific amount of money in the ad damnum section of their complaints, because of serious problems with unscrupulous attorneys gaining undue publicity by simply demanding outrageous and unrealistic damage amounts like $1 trillion. Therefore, many such complaints cannot and do not state an amount in controversy on their face, which puts defendants in the awkward position of having to submit evidence to the federal court that plaintiffs could theoretically recover a sum in excess of $75,000, while simultaneously maintaining that plaintiffs are not entitled to anything at all.[5]

text: In state courts[edit]

text: Each state has the power to set its own amount in controversy requirements for its own courts, but every state must offer some outlet for citizens to sue for violations of their rights, even if they are seeking no money. Most states have several levels of trial courts, with different amount-in-controversy requirements which must be met to gain access to higher levels of courts. For example, in the state of Virginia, the lowest level of court, the Virginia General District Court has exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases where the amount in controversy is $4,500 or less, and shares authority with the Virginia Circuit Court to try cases involving sums above $4,500 and up to $25,000. The Virginia Circuit Court, in turn, has exclusive jurisdiction where the amount in controversy is greater than $25,000.

text: A few states like California have decided that it is more efficient to unify all trial courts so that judges and support staff can be more easily reassigned where needed. However, in California, nearly all lawsuits involving an amount in controversy up to $25,000 are classified as "limited civil actions," which are subject to special simplified procedural rules intended to hold down litigation costs.[6]