{"id":384367,"date":"2025-11-17T03:36:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T03:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384367\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T03:36:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T03:36:33","slug":"what-happens-when-wolves-leave-yellowstone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384367\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens When Wolves Leave Yellowstone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mountain Journal produced this story in collaboration with WyoFile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If not for a series of tones broadcasting her location, no one would\u2019ve known she had died.<\/p>\n

Like dozens of other Yellowstone National Park wolves involved in a three-decade-long study, researchers collared wolf 1331F as a pup in 2021 to track her movements. Gray with ribbons of brown fur fading into her pale muzzle and legs, the young wolf lived with the Wapiti Lake Pack, one of the largest in Yellowstone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wildlife photographer V.C. Wald watched 1331 supervise black wolf pups hunting a wounded bison on the shore of the Gibbon River in the winter of 2023-\u201924. \u00a0Easily visible from the road, the pups tried to take the bison head-on, only to scatter as it bluff charged. Then, 1331 demonstrated how to approach the massive ungulate more safely from behind, nipping at its hind quarters, Wald recalls, \u201c[she was] a teacher, of young wolves, and of me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tWolf 1331F, pictured here in the winter of 2023-2024, a year before her death, supervises her pups while they hunt a wounded bison on the shore of the Gibbon River. Credit: V.C. Wald<\/p>\n

The scene isn\u2019t out of the ordinary for the Wapiti Lake Pack, whose territory encompasses Yellowstone\u2019s sagebrush-covered Hayden Valley in the center of the park. They chase elk and bison. They play and sun themselves on cold winter days. Much of this activity occurs under the gaze of humans. But every now and then, pack members leave the park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In late 2024, Yellowstone Wolf Project telemetry data suggest 1331F started a journey away from her pack. She headed north. First, she spent time around Mammoth Hot Springs. Then she crossed the park\u2019s boundary into Montana. While tourists often lined roads to watch 1331 and her packmates inside the park, wolf watchers are sparser in the rugged and mountainous mix of public and private land just north of Yellowstone. Wolf 1331 had no way of knowing, but she\u2019d crossed an invisible line where the national park gives way to state rule. It\u2019s a consequential threshold: Wolves are protected from hunting on one side, but can be legally killed by gun, trap or snare on the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Park officials don\u2019t know if 1331 was permanently leaving her pack or if she would have eventually returned to Wapiti Lake\u2019s territory; it\u2019s not uncommon for female wolves of her age to disperse for days or even weeks leading up to breeding season in February \u2014 sort of a lupine rumspringa. But they do know she\u2019d left the pack far behind. On January 24, 2025, staff with the Yellowstone Wolf Project drove north of the park, wielding bulky telemetry equipment to listen for collared elk and wolves. They heard 1331\u2019s signal, indicating she\u2019d moved farther into Montana than ever. But, the beeps suggested, she hadn\u2019t budged in at least 12 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Park staff turned the information over to Montana\u2019s fish and game agency. Wolf 1331 would ultimately be found dead in a trap set by a prolific wolf hunter who manages a large ranch about 10 miles north of Yellowstone. The man who trapped 1331 would receive a warning for violating state trap-check laws and no other punishment. Her journey had come to an end roughly a month after it began.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Yellowstone bubble<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wolf 1331F\u2019s fate was unusual only in that she made it so far north. <\/p>\n

When wolves leave the park, they die \u2014 often, quickly.<\/p>\n

Yellowstone\u2019s roughly 100 wolves are among the most famous and beloved in the world, attracting throngs of wolf-admiring tourists who spend tens of millions of dollars<\/a> in the region every year. However, protected by federal law and tolerant of their adoring fans, Yellowstone wolves are uniquely vulnerable to hunters and trappers in surrounding states where killing wolves is legal. Their destinies are often shaped by which of the three surrounding state boundaries they cross.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tWildlife watchers with high-dollar spotting scopes and cameras line a hill overlooking Lamar Valley in May 2018. Wolf-watching alone contributes more than $80 million annually to Yellowstone gateway communities. Credit: Diane Renkin \/ NPS<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at the fate of collared wolves that leave Yellowstone, most commonly they don\u2019t survive the next hunting season,\u201d Yellowstone Wolf Project leader Dan Stahler said in a May 2024 interview.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heading into Wyoming, wolves encounter wilderness and tightly controlled hunts, but greater danger beyond. Step into Idaho and it\u2019s a free-fire zone, though few wolves go that way. Journeys north into Montana are the most common and have proven the most deadly, despite some state efforts to take it easy on park wolves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yellowstone\u2019s wolves die from hunting and trapping outside the park every season, but things seem to be getting worse. From 2009-2020, about 4.3 wolves from Yellowstone were killed legally by hunters and trappers each year, according to National Park Service data<\/a>. From 2021-2024, that number nearly tripled when an average of 12.75 wolves died annually, according to Yellowstone Wolf Project data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhen we look at the fate of collared wolves that leave Yellowstone, most commonly they don\u2019t survive the next hunting season.\u201d<\/p>\n

dan stahler, lead biologist, yellowstone wolf project<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was clear to Doug Smith, retired lead of the Yellowstone Wolf Project, that the park\u2019s porous boundaries would be an issue almost immediately after wolves were reintroduced in 1995. \u201cThis is a long-term problem for wildlife management, and particularly wolves,\u201d Smith said in an interview this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside Yellowstone, wolves are managed \u201cfor the benefit and enjoyment of the people,\u201d the now-famous language adorning the top of Roosevelt Arch, a striking stone gateway often surrounded by selfie-taking tourists at the park\u2019s North Entrance. The sentiment springs from the 1916 act creating the National Park Service and stops at the park\u2019s border. Outside Yellowstone, the states take over wolf management. There, wolves can get into trouble. They kill livestock, the occasional pet, and lots and lots of elk. And they\u2019re especially naive to the many dangers in the new world around them.<\/p>\n

\"Diane<\/p>\n

\t\tA truck carrying wolves for reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park on January 12, 1995 drives through Roosevelt Arch as school children look on. Credit: Diane Papineau \/ NPS<\/p>\n

Even in the early days of reintroduction<\/a>, Smith remembers phone calls urging him to do the impossible: keep wolves inside the park. Back then, wolves had federal protections both in and out of Yellowstone. Hunting them was illegal, whether in Montana, Wyoming or Idaho, or inside Yellowstone itself. But within a month of releasing the park\u2019s first wolves from their enclosure, a hunter named Chad McKittrick illegally shot and killed a male wolf<\/a>, numbered 10M, after it left the park and ventured onto private land near Red Lodge, Montana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fast-forward nearly 30 years and death also awaited 1329M, a striking green-eyed black male wolf<\/a>, when he left Yellowstone. Researchers captured and collared 1329, born into the Wapiti Lake Pack just like 1331F. He was caught and joined the ranks of research wolves in 2021, the same year they collared 1331F as a pup. A year later, park scientists documented the young male, with a touch of silver on his chin, getting into a scuffle with other males, which could have spurred a dispersal. His collar\u2019s GPS data shows he left Yellowstone on May 14, 2022, heading south. \u201c[1329] beelined it all the way down through the trophy game wolf area,\u201d said Stahler, the current Yellowstone Wolf Project leader.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tWolf 1329M pauses from a venison meal after fellow members of the Wapiti Lake Pack took down a deer in the Gardner River just inside the Yellowstone National Park boundary. Credit: C Thomas Hoff Photography<\/p>\n

The state of Wyoming tightly regulates wolf hunting in an area where wolves are managed as \u201ctrophy game\u201d adjacent to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, with the area closed to hunting in the spring. But 1329 kept moving. GPS data shows his route, loping straight through the heart of Jackson Hole, then south, looping through the Wyoming and Salt River ranges. The black wolf headed into a valley where, three years later, Sublette County resident Cody Roberts would fight a felony animal cruelty charge<\/a> for allegedly making a public spectacle of a wounded, juvenile wolf<\/a> in a bar before the animal died. The incident made international news and divided the small Western Wyoming community<\/a>. Wolves are fewer here. There\u2019s a reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within two weeks of leaving Yellowstone, the roughly 2-year-old 1329 crossed another boundary and left Wyoming\u2019s regulated wolf \u201ctrophy game\u201d area for its \u201cpredator zone,\u201d which covers 85 percent of the state and where there are virtually no regulations on how wolves can be killed. Running down and bludgeoning wolves with snowmobiles here is legal<\/a>. The departure meant he could be killed any time of year, by almost any means, and without a license.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of June 2022, wolf 1329 stopped moving in the mountains near Salt River Pass, near where the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem transitions into the Great Basin. He\u2019d stepped into a steel-jawed leghold trap. \u201cIt had been in the trap about four days,\u201d Stahler says, \u201cbased on the location and movement.\u201d By June 26, the trapped wolf was dead. The Yellowstone biologist\u2019s best guess is that 1329 was exposed to the elements and died of dehydration. States surrounding the park require trappers to frequently check their wolf traps to reduce animals\u2019 suffering and minimize harm to non-target species. Negligence is illegal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Risky life choice\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wolves in the Northern Rockies are no strangers to controversy. <\/p>\n

Indeed, politicians in all three states surrounding Yellowstone have long seized on wolves as a prime example of federal overreach. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remain seriously concerned with the uncertainty that continues to surround Yellowstone wolf reintroduction as it moves forward,\u201d former Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer wrote to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt in 1995, after wolves were already on the ground. Former Idaho Governor Butch Otter said he\u2019d be the first to bid on a wolf tag back in 2007. And Montana Governor Greg Gianforte was issued a warning for killing a Yellowstone wolf without the proper trapper education in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Death by hunting, trapping or wildlife management official is the most common fate for wolves that leave Yellowstone National Park. Even in a natural system, the act of dispersing is already a \u201crisky life choice,\u201d according to Stahler. Solo wolves end up in territories of other wolf packs, where they clash and get killed. In fact, within Yellowstone, wolves are the leading cause of wolf death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jim<\/p>\n

\t\tThe first wolf arrives in Yellowstone at the Crystal Bench Pen (L-R: Mike Phillips-YNP Wolf Project Leader, Jim Evanoff-YNP, Molly Beattie- USFWS Director, Mike Finley-YNP Superintendent, Bruce Babbitt-Secretary of Interior) on January 12, 1995. Credit: Jim Peaco \/ NPS<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tWolf No. 7 in shipping container in Rose Creek pen in January 1995. Credit: Jim Peaco \/ NPS<\/p>\n

While the number of wolves that spend the vast majority of their time inside Yellowstone has stayed relatively static for more than two decades, wolf populations outside the park have grown by leaps and bounds. That\u2019s in part because some Yellowstone wolves successfully dispersed and survived. At the same time, other wolves reintroduced in Idaho\u2019s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness established and bred. And yet more wolves filtered down from the north, crossing the Canadian border into the U.S. Today, populations of animals as reclusive as wolves are tough to estimate, but the most recent figures for Montana and Idaho wolf populations are roughly 1,100 and 1,200, respectively. In Wyoming, which has less mountainous, treed habitat, there are fewer wolves \u2014 about 350 \u2014 and they\u2019re counted with much greater precision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While those wolf populations outside the park grew, the human population inside Yellowstone expanded, too. Park visitation hovered around 3 million annually at the time of wolf reintroduction in 1995. Today, that number is closer to 5 million, evidenced by the sprawl of souvenir shops in the Yellowstone gateway towns of Jackson, Wyoming and Gardiner, Montana where tourists snap up T-shirts, stuffed bison and elk toys, and art emblazoned with wolves. This increased visitation, wolf biologist Smith says, is the biggest issue facing Yellowstone National Park as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best place in the world to view wild wolves,\u201d says Smith, adding that in the early days of wolf reintroduction, finding wolves inside the park was exclusive, inside information. That\u2019s changed nowadays, he says, with the influx of eager, wolf- and grizzly-watching tourists. \u201cThere\u2019s no inside tips anymore. Just look for the traffic jam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/p>\n

\t\tIn the early days of wolf reintroduction, finding wolves inside the park was exclusive, inside information, says Doug Smith. Now you just follow Yellowstone traffic jams. Here, cars stall for a bison jam in Hayden Valley. Credit: Jacob W. Frank \/ NPS<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no inside tips anymore. Just look for the traffic jam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Smith, former lead, Yellowstone Wolf Project<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wolf-watching tourism alone contributes at least $82 million annually to communities bordering the park, the most recent data show. However, all those people lining the roads and hillsides of Yellowstone come at a cost. \u201c[When wolves] leave the park,\u201d Smith says, \u201cthey get shot because they stand there and look at a hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some wolves become so accustomed to people that they become habituated, according to Smith, meaning they walk up to humans in search of food or become so bold that they run off with tripods<\/a>. In rare instances, park officials have euthanized habituated wolves.<\/p>\n

The Wapiti Lake Pack, a major draw for wolf watchers and tourists, has been susceptible to human conditioning. These Yellowstone interior wolves, considered bison-killing specialists<\/a>, often use groomed park roads to get around in winter, at times walking right by snowmobilers buzzing down the road on their way to places like Old Faithful or Tower Junction. They\u2019ve even been hazed with paintballs as a result.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/p>\n

\t\tFog burns off the Yellowstone River in the park\u2019s Hayden Valley, territory of the Wapiti Lake wolf pack. Credit: Jacob W. Frank \/ NPS<\/p>\n

But the vast majority of park wolves aren\u2019t habituated, Smith says. Rather, they\u2019re tolerant of people. \u201cA wild wolf is avoidant,\u201d he says. \u201cThey flee, they run. They know what humans mean: death. That\u2019s not a park wolf.\u201d Tolerance is the curse that leaves them vulnerable outside the park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Justin Webb, executive director of the Foundation for Wildlife Management, says Yellowstone should do more to instill its wolves with a healthy fear of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWolves in the park should be given the respect of space, and I think that those wolves shouldn\u2019t be conditioned to people,\u201d says Webb, whose nonprofit makes bounty-like payments to trappers who kill wolves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On occasion, Yellowstone wolves face circumstances that make them especially prone to human conditioning. The Junction Butte Pack, for example, often dens within eyeshot of Slough Creek, a popular trailhead for hikers and anglers. Tourists and Yellowstone guides have learned about the highly visible location, potentially dooming those pups<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t they close the trailhead down?\u201d Webb asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yellowstone wolves leave the park for all kinds of reasons. Some, like 1331F, might take a temporary solo hiatus from their pack, while 1329M was likely in the midst of a more permanent dispersal, searching for new territory or a mate. However, the vast majority of Yellowstone\u2019s wolves spend about 96 percent of their time inside the park, collar data shows. With no time to learn a healthy fear of humans, the 4 percent of the time they unwittingly leave their protections behind proves deadly. Instead of other wolves, people \u2014 either hunters or poachers \u2014 become, by far, the leading cause of death for wolves that depart Yellowstone, Stahler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No fear<\/strong><\/p>\n

FOR THE FIRST DECADE AND A HALF AFTER WOLVES RETURNED TO YELLOWSTONE, THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OUTLAWED HUNTING WOLVES THROUGHOUT THE LOWER 48. <\/p>\n

Protracted legal battles meant the first lawful hunt didn\u2019t occur until 2009, and it revealed the risk facing wolves that spend most of their lives inside Yellowstone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey aren\u2019t showing any fear,\u201d one Montana wolf hunter told the Los Angeles Times<\/a> after a successful hunt that year. \u201cBut they will, I\u2019m sure.\u201d Another hunting guide told the outlet about a wolf his client killed: \u201cHe was no more afraid of [the hunter] than the man in the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2011, wolves were permanently \u201cdelisted,\u201d or stripped of federal protections under the Endangered Species Act, in Montana, Idaho and portions of three other western states by an act of Congress. In Wyoming, the change came more slowly because of litigation. Wolves were most recently delisted there in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tTwo wolves from Yellowstone\u2019s Wapiti Lake Pack prepare to cross a field after stopping to drink from a creek near Mud Volcano in October 2025. Credit: Ben Bluhm<\/p>\n

After years of hunts in surrounding states, the story hasn\u2019t changed much. In late 2024, members of the 8 Mile Pack crossed the park boundary into Montana. Three hunters were waiting. They left with four dead wolves. A fifth was found days later, dead in nearby bushes. That many wolves dying at the same time rather than fleeing at the sound of a gunshot, Smith says, likely means they had no fear of people. \u201cKilling multiple wolves at once is a sure sign of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this way, 1331 and 1329 are outliers. According to Yellowstone National Park data, over the last few years, approximately 81 percent of wolves that lived in Yellowstone and were killed by hunters died in Montana. That\u2019s largely due to terrain. Think of the Gardiner Basin just north of Yellowstone like a funnel: Elk migrate to the lower-elevation, arid area in search of forage in winter. Wolves follow. Of all those wolves killed by hunters in Montana, nearly 9 in 10 died within just a mile of the park boundary. The forays of 1331 and 1329 outside Yellowstone \u2014 clocking about 10 miles and over 100, respectively \u2014 mean they traveled much farther than most of their kind before meeting the same end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lives of long-distance travelers, like the two Wapiti Lake pack members that died in traps, are less understood. Smith attributes the dearth of data to a simple reason: They die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA wolf dispersing has a higher mortality risk because it doesn\u2019t know the landscape,\u201d he says. \u201cSo that makes it more vulnerable to getting shot because they\u2019re wandering around going, \u2018I don\u2019t know where I am; I don\u2019t know where it\u2019s safe and where it\u2019s unsafe.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Montana and Wyoming\u2019s respective wildlife management agencies investigated the trappings of 1331 and 1329. Both were found only because of their collar mortality signals, and both trappers were found to have violated state \u201ctrap-check\u201d laws. Wolf traps must be checked every 48 hours in Montana. Leghold traps must be checked every 72 hours in Wyoming\u2019s predator zone, the only place in the Equality State where wolf trapping is allowed.<\/p>\n

The Wyoming trapper, a Cokeville resident named Ezra Cluff, was cited and fined $250 on June 30, 2022. \u201cCluff stated that he had got busy and had indeed failed to do his trap checks on time,\u201d the warden wrote in a citation slip<\/a>. Cluff did not respond to an interview request.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly three years later and on the opposite end of the ecosystem, 1331 was found in a trap about 10 miles, as the crow flies, north of Yellowstone. The trap was registered to Matt Lumley, who was at the time president of the Montana Trappers Association and vice president of the National Trappers Association. Lumley also has close ties to political leadership in Montana. He helped Governor Gianforte trap and kill another collared Yellowstone wolf in 2021. Gianforte later described Lumley as his wolf hunting \u201cmentor\u201d in an interview with Lee Enterprise\u2019s Statehouse Bureau. In addition, Lumley is a founding member of the Outdoor Heritage Coalition, a group currently suing Montana, arguing that state wildlife managers aren\u2019t setting policy aggressive enough to reduce the wolf population.<\/p>\n

Lumley did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But his comments in the Helena Capitol building are in the public record. \u201cI\u2019ve killed a lot of wolves,\u201d he testified at the Montana Legislature in January 2025 just days before Wolf Project staff heard 1331F\u2019s mortality signal. \u201cI\u2019ve never killed a Yellowstone National Park wolf. I\u2019m killing all my wolves in Montana.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yellowstone park officials estimate that 1331 died on January 16, 2025. Park staff detected her mortality signal on January 23, and her remains were recovered even later. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks submitted a \u201crequest for prosecution\u201d for a trap-check violation to Montana\u2019s Park County Attorney\u2019s Office. Despite the state\u2019s 48-hour trap-check regulation for wolves, the county attorney declined to prosecute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tLumley was issued a warning by Montana FWP. Park County Attorney Chad Glenn declined to prosecute. Lumley is a founding member of the Outdoor Heritage Coalition, a group currently suing Montana, arguing that state wildlife managers aren\u2019t setting aggressive enough policy to reduce the wolf population.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a careful review of the reports, supporting documents, and available evidence, we determined that the facts did not establish a criminal offense that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,\u201d Park County Attorney Chad Glenn said in an email to Mountain Journal and WyoFile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Glenn did not respond to follow-up questions or provide the documents he cited as the basis for his decision. Ultimately, Lumley walked away with a formal warning from FWP. Gianforte also walked away with a warning<\/a> in 2021 after running afoul of trapping regulations while killing a wolf with Lumley on the same ranch, owned by Robert E. Smith, a co-director of Sinclair Broadcasting Group and contributor to Gianforte\u2019s 2017 congressional campaign.<\/p>\n

Elk, livestock and wolves<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

The saga of Wapiti Lake\u2019s wandering wolves reflects the complexity of managing Yellowstone wolves when they leave protected areas like the park. <\/p>\n

Over the last few decades, the region has transitioned from an economy based on resource extraction to one heavily reliant on tourism and recreation. Outside the national park, wildlife managers are tasked with balancing hard-to-reconcile viewpoints in states where hunting and ranching have deep roots and large landowners hold sway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The overpopulated elk herds of Yellowstone\u2019s Northern Range numbered around 15,000-20,000<\/a> in the years leading up to the 1995 wolf reintroduction. Counts are now closer to 5,000, much to the dismay of many a hunter who relied on the area\u2019s abundance of ungulates for meat or trophies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got an 18-year-old son that I want to get to experience elk camp in the backcountry,\u201d Webb, the wolf-hunting advocate, told a Wyoming audience in 2022<\/a>. \u201cI want him to sit on a mountaintop on a ridge and listen to bulls bugle below him as the sun comes up, and I believe that if we don\u2019t do something to control wolf populations, he won\u2019t have that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Wolves push an elk herd in Yellowstone. Biologists say wolf packs have contributed to the decline in Yellowstone elk numbers over the last 30 years since they were reintroduced to the park, but many also say that the elk population before wolves returned was greater than the area\u2019s carrying capacity. Credit: Matt Metz \/ NPS<\/p>\n

Wolves were a factor \u2014 but not the only factor \u2014 in the region\u2019s decline in elk numbers. Mountain lions and bears eat elk, too. And so do people. A long-running late-season elk hunt in the Gardiner area also played a role in the elk population\u2019s shrinking size. Despite a drastic decrease in numbers from the days before wolves, elk populations north of Yellowstone still remain at or above the state-set goal for elk numbers. Access to elk is yet another important part of the hunting puzzle. Some hunters say the wary ungulates that remain in the area often take shelter from wolves and hunters alike on private land, making them next to impossible to pursue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lumley the trapper called the decline of southwest Montana elk \u201cthe greatest loss of hunting opportunity in the world\u201d during the same legislative hearing he touted killing \u201ca lot of wolves.\u201d Decades before wolf reintroduction, elk were so numerous in the area that Yellowstone sometimes culled thousands of the animals in a single year. Later, the park took a more hands-off approach. Elk hunting outside the park became the primary management tool to deal with the overpopulated ungulates. Locals recall a \u201cfiring line\u201d of hunters<\/a> as elk moved toward winter range outside the park\u2019s protections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Part of the tension around hunting both wolves and elk also centers on economics. While wolf-watching brings millions of tourist dollars into communities surrounding the park, outfitters north of Yellowstone have lost business as elk herds declined after reintroduction. The lawsuit filed by the Outdoor Heritage Coalition<\/a> features outfitter Craig Neal, an outfitter in Townsend, Montana, as a plaintiff. Neal, the brief contends, \u201chas been negatively impacted by restrictions on wolf hunting in Montana from a personal and economic perspective \u2026 his business opportunities are limited by the insufficient wolf quotas and reduced elk available for hunting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tA lone gray wolf feeds from the remnants of an elk carcass in May 2024 in Grand Teton National Park near Elk Ranch Flats. Credit: Ben Bluhm<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tA wolf trots through the snow in Grand Teton National Park in April 2024 en route to join packmates after hunting bison during a particularly harsh winter in Wyoming. Credit: Ben Bluhm<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tA young member of the Wapiti Lake wolf pack pauses to take a drink from a small creek near Yellowstone\u2019s Mud Volcano in October 2025. Credit: Ben Bluhm<\/p>\n

Elk aren\u2019t the only hooved creatures wolves impact, either. Outside Yellowstone, they also occasionally kill livestock. Although wolf-killed cattle and sheep are a drop in the bucket among the many factors that kill domestic livestock, the impacts aren\u2019t trivial for individual ranchers in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Wyoming and Montana each year, wolves typically kill at least a few dozen of the more than 3 million cows in the two states \u2014 though many ranchers argue that wolf kills can go unproven since remote carcasses are consumed before the kill can be documented. Depredation numbers in Wyoming notably spiked from 2014 to 2017, topping out at 121 wolf-killed cattle \u2014 a pulse of conflict that coincided with the three years Wyoming wolves were relisted under the Endangered Species Act. While those federal protections prohibited hunters from killing wolves at the time, wildlife managers trying to avert conflict could do just that. And they did, killing a record number<\/a>. In Montana, complaints about wolves eating livestock peaked at 233 in 2009. Since then<\/a>, in the wake of delisting, the number of reports has dropped off drastically, hovering at 100 or fewer annually from 2015 to 2024.<\/p>\n

Pressure cooker<\/strong><\/p>\n

To control the wolf population and mitigate their impact, hunting has become a fixture of wolf management in the Northern Rockies. <\/p>\n

Since legal seasons began earlier in the century, some animals that spend most of the year in Yellowstone are always lost to hunters\u2019 bullets and traps outside park boundaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an attempt to resolve the tension between the park and surrounding states, Montana carved out small areas with more limited hunting called \u201cwolf management units\u201d directly north of the park. Wyoming tightly controls its hunts immediately adjacent to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, and has had minimal overall impact on Yellowstone populations. Idaho takes an aggressive, statewide approach to wolf hunting and trapping, but the topography and location of Yellowstone packs have limited its influence on park populations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tTwo six-month-old wolf pups of the Shrimp Lake Pack stride through the tall grass by Baronette Peak in Yellowstone National Park in October 2023. Credit: Ben Bluhm<\/p>\n

The vast majority of harvested Yellowstone wolves die in Montana, where tensions continue to flare over setting the state\u2019s wolf season. In 2021, the Montana Legislature mandated a reduction in the state\u2019s overall wolf population, numbering roughly 1,177 at the time. The new law simply set a minimum of 15 breeding pairs (corresponding to 450 wolves). <\/p>\n

In the years since, setting policy to reduce wolf numbers has fallen to the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission, a citizen board appointed by the governor, currently Gianforte. The commission has considered a slew of ways to meet the mandate: lengthening hunting and trapping seasons, instituting a statewide quota, night hunting on private land, and neck snaring, among other approaches. Some of those aggressive tactics have taken effect. Others haven\u2019t. Yet today, four years after the legislative mandate took effect, Montana still hasn\u2019t seen a meaningful reduction in its wolf population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2021, about six months after Gianforte trapped and killed a Yellowstone wolf north of the park, the commission also removed quotas in the wolf management units, or WMUs, just outside Yellowstone. That winter, hunters killed at least 25 wolves that spent the vast majority of their lives inside the park. Roughly 1 in 5 park wolves perished \u2014 more park wolves than in any hunting season before or since. Yellowstone biologists worried about the impact of the hunt on their three-decade-old research project<\/a> \u2014 some packs dissolved due to the hunt, and others formed. Behavior and reproductive rates changed, too. Wildlife guides were furious, concerned they\u2019d lose business or wolf-watching opportunities altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the quotas were restored. But over the next two years, outcomes for Yellowstone wolves only marginally improved. At least 13 park wolves were killed in the 2023-2024 hunting season. Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly voiced his concern to the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission in a 2024 letter<\/a>. \u201cWolves that primarily live within Yellowstone are exceedingly valuable to a great number of people across Montana, the country, and the world,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe park generates hundreds of millions of dollars in additional economic activity to Montana economies and wolves and other wildlife rate as a top reason why people visit the park and region.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pressure cooker of hunting policy around Yellowstone hasn\u2019t let off steam. At the January 2025 legislative hearing, Lumley complained that the Fish and Wildlife Commission was setting policy that was too protective of wolves and listening only to out-of-state interests, particularly Yellowstone. Just 3 percent of the national park<\/a> lies in Montana. \u201cThat\u2019s what you are elected to do, protect Montana\u2019s interests,\u201d Lumley testified. \u201cNot Yellowstone National Park\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting months later, Chris Morgan, Lumley\u2019s successor at the Montana Trappers Association, made similar claims. He alleged that policy safeguarding wolves in the region around Yellowstone is a \u201cpolitical ploy\u201d and touted the state\u2019s responsibility for wolf reduction rather than wolf watching.<\/p>\n

\"Norm<\/p>\n

\t\tMontanans hold up signs decrying wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone at an open house in Helena, Montana, 1996. Credit: Norm Bishop \/ NPS<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any state mandate that requires us to make sure that ecotourism thrives,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cOur mandate is to reduce the state\u2019s population of wolves. Plain and simple. Period.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wolf advocates were just as fired up in the day-long meeting<\/a>. Cara McGary, a Yellowstone guide and cofounder of Wild Livelihoods Business Coalition, argued that plenty of Yellowstone wolves \u2014 like 1331F\u2014 die even outside the protective boundaries of the wolf management units. Southwest Montana receives far more wolf hunting pressure than anywhere else in the state, despite a lower overall wolf density than Montana\u2019s northwest corner, according to Montana FWP data<\/a>. It\u2019s also the only area in the Treasure State where the wolf population was already on the decline. In 2024 alone, at least six wolves from the park died legally in the Yellowstone-adjacent WMUs and another five outside their boundaries. \u201cThat\u2019s almost 10 percent of the product that our businesses depend on,\u201d she testified.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time of publication, wolf hunting season in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho is well underway. The heat over wolf hunting regulations around Yellowstone in that August commission meeting led to something of a middle-ground approach. But already this year, a Montana hunter legally killed a Yellowstone wolf beloved to the wolf-watching community, which described the dark black 1479F as playful and tolerant of crowds.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was one of the few wolves in the park that would walk right through a crowd of people to reach her destination,\u201d wildlife photographer Deby Dixon told Cowboy State Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The National Park Service has two chief goals: preserving and protecting natural systems, and visitor enjoyment. Wolves figure into both, and the scientific gains from studying Yellowstone packs are unparalleled: They\u2019re both uniquely visible and, at least in theory, uninfluenced by humans. But as wolves deal with such direct mortality when they set paw outside the park, Smith wonders: \u201cDo you have a natural wolf population or not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Some data suggests not. A 2023 peer-reviewed study<\/a> led by then-University of Montana PhD student Brenna Cassidy found that Montana\u2019s wolf-hunting regime has a clear effect on the overall survival of Yellowstone wolves. Without hunting, park wolves have a nearly 90 percent chance of surviving any given year, but the rate falls to about 80 percent when hunting occurs with quotas. When there\u2019s unlimited hunting outside the boundary, Yellowstone wolves\u2019 chances of surviving a year dip closer to 70 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith, Yellowstone\u2019s retired wolf biologist, wants to be clear: He\u2019s a hunter as well, and a self-described \u201cgun guy.\u201d At times, though, he worries that all the focus on Yellowstone\u2019s wolves has an overlooked downside. It sucks the air out of the room in wolf management conversations, leaving too little focus on the thousands more wolves in Montana and the rest of the Northern Rockies that don\u2019t have the same vocal proponents as animals in and around the park. Those wolves die too \u2014 often very quickly or brutally. In Montana, hunters and trappers can take a total of 458 wolves this season, including six in the WMUs outside Yellowstone and 60 in the larger region where 1331 met her end. There are no limits in Idaho, and it\u2019s a wolf hunting free-for-all in Wyoming\u2019s predator zone, where 1329 died in an illegally monitored trap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thinking about intense hunting pressure throughout the Northern Rockies, Smith thinks wildlife managers should consider a bigger question: \u201cWhere do wolves get to be wolves?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A.<\/p>\n

\t\tA faint rainbow peeks out over Hayden Valley in Yellowstone during golden hour. Credit: A. Falgoust \/ NPS<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mountain Journal produced this story in collaboration with WyoFile. If not for a series of tones broadcasting her…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":384368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[183638,183639,183640,183641,183642,183643,154300,183644,183645,183646,183647,9563,183648,183649,183650,65692,183651,106304,79411,183652,13670,1665,183653,183654,183655,183656,183657,13668,183658,183659,183660,11686,183661,183662,159,67,132,136124,68,183663,837,183664,183665,33180,59669,183666,9571,183667,1669,15471,183668],"class_list":{"0":"post-384367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-brenna-cassidy","9":"tag-bruce-babbitt","10":"tag-butch-otter","11":"tag-cam-sholly","12":"tag-cara-mcgary","13":"tag-chad-glenn-park-county-attorney","14":"tag-cody-roberts","15":"tag-cowboy-state-daily","16":"tag-dan-stahler","17":"tag-deby-dixon","18":"tag-doug-smith","19":"tag-endangered-species-act","20":"tag-ezra-cluff","21":"tag-foundation-for-wildlife-management","22":"tag-gardiner-montana","23":"tag-grand-teton-national-park","24":"tag-great-basin","25":"tag-greater-yellowstone-ecosystem","26":"tag-greg-gianforte","27":"tag-hayden-valley","28":"tag-idaho","29":"tag-jackson-wyoming","30":"tag-jim-geringer","31":"tag-junction-butte-wolf-pack","32":"tag-justin-webb","33":"tag-matt-lumley","34":"tag-mike-koshmrl","35":"tag-montana","36":"tag-montana-fish-and-wildlife-commission","37":"tag-montana-trappers-association","38":"tag-mountain-jounrnal","39":"tag-national-park-service","40":"tag-nick-mott","41":"tag-old-faithful-geyser","42":"tag-science","43":"tag-united-states","44":"tag-unitedstates","45":"tag-university-of-montana","46":"tag-us","47":"tag-wapiti-lake-pack","48":"tag-wildlife","49":"tag-wolf-1329","50":"tag-wolf-1331","51":"tag-wolf-hunting","52":"tag-wolf-reintroduction","53":"tag-wolf-trapping","54":"tag-wolves","55":"tag-wyofile","56":"tag-wyoming","57":"tag-yellowstone-national-park","58":"tag-yellowstone-wolf-project"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}