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Yellowstone’s oldest wolf pack, Mollie’s Pack, leaves the park, raising fears for its future – WyoFile
Jul
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Leslie Patten hiked into a remote reach of northwest Wyoming’s Sunlight Basin in December to post a trail camera where she’d earlier seen wolf tracks.
At the time, a winter closure was fast approaching, and the Park County resident wouldn’t be able to retrieve the camera and review the footage for months. When she hiked back to fetch her equipment on May 1, the citizen scientist and author was greeted by one of nature’s most primal noises: the howls of wolves.
The sonorous canines’ calls not far away foretold the footage she’d soon review.
“I looked at the camera, and I had the Mollie’s Pack,” Patten told WyoFile.
Patten posted a one-minute clip on her YouTube page. Six wolves, strung out, casually loped over patches of snow in the timber.
“I didn’t identify them,” Patten said.
But a biologist she knew confirmed the hunch she kept concealed: The wolves belonged to Mollie’s Pack. That’s the last remaining pack from Yellowstone National Park’s historic reintroduction of wolves 31 years ago. Originally called the Crystal Creek Pack, in 2000 they were renamed in memory of Mollie Beattie, the first woman to direct the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who died of cancer during the reintroduction.
“There’s a movie out about them right now at IMAX theaters nationwide — the original name of the movie was the Mollie’s Pack,” said retired Yellowstone Wolf Project leader Doug Smith, who’s finishing up a book on the wolves. “Mollie’s claim to fame is it’s the longest-known intact genetic lineage for any pack in North America.”
The pack’s new whereabouts, dozens of miles to the east of their typical backcountry territory in Yellowstone’s Pelican Valley, is “deeply concerning,” he said.
“My worry is that there’s a group of people who just don’t like wolves,” Smith said. “And they’ll hunt them more avidly just to get them.”
Wyoming’s wolf hunting season starts Sept. 15, and state wildlife officials voted Tuesday to allow the killing of up to four wolves in the area, sparking concern about the pack’s future. Although wolf hunting is quite difficult, Yellowstone wolves are accustomed to vehicles and crowds. They’re often naive to the dangers posed by humans, and as a result, they are especially vulnerable to hunters.
“That’s the big issue, really,” Smith said. “It takes them a bit to figure it out, because they’re just so used to people.”
It’s a “unique circumstance” that Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf biologist Ken Mills does not relish and is handling carefully. State wildlife managers even attempted to relocate the Mollie’s Pack den site away from cattle to reduce the chance of conflict that could lead to their demise.
“It is not an ideal situation,” Mills told WyoFile. “It’s exactly the pack you’d never want to move out [of the park]. But that’s what happened.”
Yellowstone Wolf Project leader Dan Stahler, who succeeded Smith, says that the historically mild winter and sparse snowpack are the likeliest explanation for why Mollie’s Pack wolves left the park for the most prolonged period in three decades.
“The prey that remained in the park were in better shape — they were harder to kill,” Stahler said. “Wolves need vulnerable prey to be successful.”
Right before Halloween, he said, the Mollie’s wolves took off, presumably in search of easier meals. They’d moved around before, especially in the winter, but historically more than 95% of their travels were within the park, he said.
Mollie’s Pack wolves weren’t the only ones in Yellowstone making extraterritorial forays last winter, Stahler said. The 8 Mile Pack “largely vacated” the park last winter, he said, and the Rescue Creek and Junction Butte packs also made big trips.
There are three tracking-collar-equipped wolves in the Mollie’s Pack, animals that keep wildlife managers apprised of their daily movements. They’ve only returned to the park “a handful of occasions” since last fall, Stahler said.
Around the time the Mollies headed for Sunlight Basin, about an hour’s drive northwest of Cody, seven adults ran in the family group, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s annual wolf report. Although the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s wolf population slumped significantly this year due to a distemper outbreak, the Mollie’s Pack only lost one member from natural causes in 2025.
Another member, a 6-year-old male known as Wolf 1339M, peeled off the pack and has mostly been traveling solo after “seemingly” losing his alpha male status, Stahler said.
And another member died accidentally during Game and Fish’s routine capture operations last winter, Mills said. That wolf had “pre-existing injuries” — bruising and hemorrhaging from its head to its hip — and did not survive being tranquilized.
“It’s one of those things that happens,” Mills said. “About one in 100 wolves that we catch from the air die.”
Currently, the Mollie’s Pack includes five adults and five pups, Stahler said. One of its remaining members, Wolf 1090F, is a 12-year-old female and among the oldest wolves on record for both Yellowstone and Wyoming.
The location of the Mollie’s Pack den site, where they’re raising the five pups, isn’t great, Mills said.
“There’s going to be a lot of cattle going into where they’re denned,” he said.
Using a method that’s as simple as walking near a wolf den — a technique Mills has studied — state wildlife officials attempted to get the pack to relocate their den to a safer site. The adult wolves naturally move their puppies after being disturbed, and the idea was to get them away from tempting domestic cattle, which can doom depredating wolves that can’t shake the habit.
“We tried to be proactive,” Mills said. “They’ve moved, but not as far as we would prefer.”
If the Mollie’s Pack does stay out of trouble during the summer grazing season, they’ll face another threat to their persistence come fall.
Where Wyoming manages wolves as trophy game, hunting is tightly restricted. And the seasons are especially conservative this year: The state agency proposed a 50% reduction in hunt limits following a canine distemper outbreak that dropped the state’s population to the lowest level in two decades.
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Even so, Wyoming plans to allow the killing of up to four wolves between Sept. 15 and Dec. 31 in hunt area 1, where the Mollie’s Pack has been dwelling. On Tuesday, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission approved those regulations, although not before hearing from folks concerned about what the fall hunt means for the Mollie’s Pack.
“They are one of the most studied, scientifically important wolf families in the world,” Marc Cooke told commissioners. “Once they are gone, decades of irreplaceable knowledge are gone with them.”
Cooke, who’s the vice president of Wolves of the Rockies, the day before had emailed Game and Fish commissioners a letter asking them to temporarily close hunt area 1.
“Wyoming has been getting pretty beat up lately with some wildlife issues, and I think there’s an opportunity here for you folks to do the right thing,” Cooke said.
Cooke’s request didn’t stand alone. Rep. Liz Storer, a Jackson Democrat, emailed commissioners asking for a one‑season closure in response to an “exceptional biological and public‑interest circumstance.” And Jackson Hole resident Lisa Robertson, who founded Wyoming Untrapped, urged commissioners to do the same in both emails and in public comment on Tuesday before the seven-person board approved the wolf hunting regulations.
“The commission’s decision in this matter extends beyond a single hunting season,” Robertson testified. “It presents an opportunity to demonstrate that Wyoming’s wolf management framework can recognize exceptional circumstances and respond with targeted science-based management action.”
(Editor’s note: Rep. Liz Storer also serves as president and CEO of the George B. Storer Foundation, which is a financial supporter of WyoFile. The foundation has no role in WyoFile’s editorial content.)
Game and Fish Commissioner John Masterson engaged Mills after the requests. Could the state agency “logistically, mechanically” protect an individual wolf pack like the Mollie’s, he inquired. And from a “purely scientific management standpoint,” he asked, “is there anything substantially unique about that pack?”
Game and Fish’s wolf biologist responded: “When we look at packs across the landscape, a breeding pair is a breeding pair. A pack is a pack,” Mills said. “That’s how we implement our management plan: based on the broader population assessment.”
Mills told WyoFile in an interview that Game and Fish has taken the same approach when other Yellowstone wolf packs have moved out of the park in the past, not treating them differently than others.
The last two hunting seasons, seven wolves were hunted from the Willow Creek Pack, a former park pack last assessed with six remaining members. And two wolves remain in Shrimp Lake Pack after one of its wolves was killed by a hunter and three more died due to conflict-related issues, Mills said.
Only time will tell if the Mollie’s Pack also loses some of its members when hunting begins this fall. At least as of Monday, the pack was in a place where hunters wouldn’t have the chance.
“Ironically, just yesterday one of my staff members did a monitoring flight, and they were in Pelican Valley,” Stahler said Tuesday morning. “I’m looking at some data, and it does look like they were still in Pelican Valley, as of about 12 hours ago.”
They were over 30 miles from the den site, he said. Although Yellowstone-area packs have been observed moving pups long distances, the pilot did not spot any pups in tow during the overflight.
“I don’t have any reason to think that their visit to Pelican Valley means they abandoned the den or lost pups,” he said. “Wolves can cruise that distance in a day and a half or less.”
Should the wolves remain long term in Wyoming’s hunt area 1, Stahler doesn’t anticipate Yellowstone seeking any special relief for the Mollie’s Pack. Park leadership has taken that step before, when Montana hunting seasons took an especially heavy toll on park packs.
“Packs adjust their range in response to prey availability,” Stahler said. “This is evidence of a wolf pack behaving naturally.”
Stahler remarked that he’d “hate to see” an old alpha female, like Wolf 1090F, lose her life to hunting.
“But you know,” he added, “that’s part of the world of a wolf now, when they leave the protection of a national park.”
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Mike Koshmrl reports on Wyoming's wildlife and natural resources. Prior to joining WyoFile, he spent nearly a decade covering the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s wild places and creatures for the Jackson… More by Mike Koshmrl
54 Comments
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Thank you Mike for taking initiative and expressing concern in reporting the meanderings of the Mollie Pack. This is a story that resonates with folks beyond the parameters of WY. Although from not close up, many concerned wolf advocates, like myself, have been following wolf restoration since the 1996 Yellowstone reintroduction. We value the return of wolf populations in other appropriate habitat areas across the country. A thumbs up to Rep Storer and Lisa Robertson for taking leadership in efforts to resolve the dilemma. Please keep on the story and report updates to WyoFile readers. Thank you.
Why can’t WY simply say that collared wolves cannot be hunted? Or set a 60 mile perimeter around Yellowstone. One more question, why are you publishing the location of the pack and den? You should be like MSM and give false info! Just a thought. It would be a big black eye on WY to lose any member of the Mollie’s.
PLEASE Protect the Wolves! Shut down all hunting events. It is cruel to take an innocent life! These wolves deserve to live freely without the fear of being killed. Makes zero sense and is cowardly to kill animals. Please find a productive activity in helping and not hurting animals and people to make this world a better place. Kindness and compassion for sacred life to be protected by all.
Hi Mike, I sincerely appreciate your time in thoroughly reporting, your compassion and wisdom in this very concerning reality of the Mollie’s Pack who have moved away from their safe place in Yellowstone Park. I am praying for a strategy to be planned to help guide the Mollie’s Pack to return to Yellowstone Park. We need to protect all wolves as much as possible from hunters and other dangerous situations, prevent them from losing their lives. I have been anxious and concerned about this situation from the very first article I read about what is going on with Mollie’s Pack. If there is anything myself and others who are concerned can do to help keep Mollie’s Pack back on safe ground, please let us know. Keeping us posted about this event is very helpful. I am praying for a happy outcome for this current event and into the future of these wolve’s and their pup’s lives!
I read the article and the current situation of the wolf pack “Mollies.” A friend posted the study for those of us who enjoy seeing them in the wild and appreciate how Yellowstone areas of the park were restored. Elk had overbrowsed the streamside willows, cottonwoods, and shrubs that prevent erosion.
Wolves don’t cover their kill, so they’ve boosted the food supply for scavengers, notably bald and golden eagles, coyotes, ravens, magpies, and bears. WE need the wolves. So much loss this year, especially with all the sad wildfires and packs have moved. They are habituated to humans, especially the mollies… and Old 1090F does not deserve this kind of demise with her beautiful history of teaching wolves how to behave. Wisdom is so critical to their learning from each other. I myself will never forget the loss of beautiful wolf 06; it was such a tragic loss.
Please push efforts to place safety measures to assure them peace and a safe home in the forest. Our animals deserve to live a free and safe life.
Could the wolves be moving because of the Naegleria fowleri (Brain-Eating Amoeba) that’s multiplying in the hot springs? I know with warmer weather they have concern with it spreading eastward. Could they be sensing it and trying to move the pack away from it for self preservation?
As long as powerful entities that basically control WY legislation via lobbying, wolves will lose. And with WY Fish and Game favoring those entities/industries, such as trophy hunting, livestock grazing as well as mineral and gas mining & exploration added to urban sprawl and exploitation of wilderness areas there is little hope for the iconic wildlife species such as wolves to survive. You would think the millions and millions of tourist dollars generated annually specifically due to the world-wide interest in wolf watching would carry some weight when WY FISH and GAME makes decisions, decisions mirrored by area judges, the “good Ole boys wolf-haters club” win despite international public outcry and protests over the barbaric capture, torture and slaughter of a year old female wolf near Cody highlighting the continual persecution of wolves exposing just how lop-sided, care-less and indifferent the States are in “managing” wolves.
How hard would it be to dye a small part of their fur? Not anything crazy, but maybe a straight line down their ruff, or just something that looks manmade(dyed?) Just for the hunting season. Long term pack life could render more information or could become the universal control for a wolf pack.
If the hunters stop.killing the wolves natural prey they might not hunt cattle from the feed lots on blm leased land the name ranchers respect earned you your self rides to.protect and watch over your herds and accept on average you lose ten percent to nature as far as the distemper it will.be in the area now for years how many more will. Die from it to come ? Each pack member has a part to play in their packs and you just informed hunters where their located those tracking collars need removed you make their private lives too that they spend 80%of their lives hunting for their meals. here is an idea if you don’t like nature don’t move into it from one of the first cattle ranching families in Colorado we left what was there when we came there they were there first
Why not put a large “bounty” in the hunting zone fore tranquilized stops? The hunter still gets a picture with their trophy but the wolves can be relocated back to Yellowstone. Mollie’s pack get saved, yet the hunters get their “trophy”.
All of the questions would be moot if the “Alaskans” had not harvested the wolves in British Columbia for U S Wildlife’s project. Nice to commemorate Mollie by naming the pack, but did she actually dart a related group of wolves that contained a breeding female and wade through chest deep snow in sub zero temperatures to carry the wolves to the helicopter that hovered above the rope ladder that the shooter used to exit and re-enter the helicopter. How does one use liquid tranquilizer darts at -20 degrees anyway? Macleans magazine knows the answer to that.
I find it interesting that hunting is made to be the villain in this story, as do some comments. Wildlife agencies account for hunting as a way to MANAGE populations not DESTROY OR HARM. Hunting, objectively is the same as disease, conflict and other losses. What isn’t reported is the need of hunting in these scenarios. Where do you think all this funding comes from folks? It comes from the greatest conservationist that has ever lived, men and woman who hunt! Hunting isn’t the villain any more than the Fish and Wildlife Agencies that manage them. These are hard-working men and women that dedicate their entire life to wildlife. I support dissenting opinions and debate because it makes us validate our decisions. That’s not what is wrong. What is wrong, is not doing the right thing because of emotion, it’s unpopular or doesn’t suit your opinion. I understand that folks may not agree with hunting and that’s ok. Truth is, this discussion would not even be happening without the hunter because there would be no wolves to talk about in the first place.
I hope.that the pack can evade the likes of Cody Roberts. I am concerned for the packs safety and heritage…sad they left Yellowstone but I guess they are wild animals.
Ever thought that due to the reduction of prey (elk) the wolves need to expand their territories?
Wolves altered the eastern Yellowstone elk population by significantly reducing herd sizes (from roughly 19,000 to around 4,000–7,000 in the decades following reintroduction) and forcing behavioral shifts. This “ecology of fear” keeps elk moving constantly.
Wolves have been persecuted for decades. They should be given protected status, not hunted for trophy kills. Never forget that our cherished dog breeds descended from the wolves.
Mollies pack left the park for easier hunting? Yes.Because the prey in the park was too strong and healthy after a mild winter? I doubt that. They just want more vulnerable prey and have hunted out what they can in the park. Perhaps their numbers are outgrowing the food sources in the park. This is the historic course of events. Wolf populations grow, food supply dwindkes, they move. The photo of them surrounding a bison tells a story– and its brutal– they need to eat. They teach their young to hunt. They dont always eat all they kill– they practice. They can easily and cruelly kill cattle and harass them into infertillity. Americans like to eat eef. Ranching is an honored way of life. Too many jobs have been created with this wolf reintroduction that are self perpetuating– stop collaring them– it even kills 1 in 100- so let nature take its course and keave them alone. They den near cattle ranches because its a safe spot for them and they wont predate while their cubs are young. But come hunting season, the short period then hunters have a chance to cull 4, the whole pack will quickly learn and will become extremely hard to find and ,well, disappear. Except for thise pesky collars. You try wearing one.
First, the thinning Elk.. over 10,000. I’m sure that was ALL wolves, come on!!
Second, I find the one line in your comment interesting, “let nature take its course.” Is “trophy hunting” considered nature taking it’s course. You talk about the bison hunting. Do you really think that the bison/elk that’s left goes to waste?I do believe there are other animals that make no waste of what “is left behind.” Which actually is incorrect. Wolves travel great distances, they’re not dragging a massive bision, elk, in a back pack. It may take days for them to return to a kill. I’m sure the bears, coyote, fox, etc. know it’s a wolf kill and will leave it alone(sarcasm). Hunters wiped out the American bison as well as other animals… is human hunting, letting nature take its course?
I understand the side of the cattlemen. It’s getting tougher and tougher to make any kind of living in America. But do we need to repeat the same mistakes.
There are all kinds of animal reintroductions..beavers, wolves, bison, etc. Let’s be honest, human hunting IS NOT nature taking it’s course. Us humans even want to “thin” the wild horse herd.
Maybe, if we did leave nature to deal with itself, we wouldn’t even be having these discussions, just saying.
Love wolves!!
Wildlife responds to human pressures. I am not a hunter, and do not believe in hunting. However, personally, any hunters that I personally know are educated, empathetic, and clearly know why conserving our wolves, for instance, is of paramount importance to our ecology. I know of hunters who are not so minded. The same two things can be said of administrators, rangers, law enforcement, residents, and politicians. My acquaintances give a damn.
Nevertheless, there is a continuing paradox in some of those who are charged with the protection and husbandry of our wild resources not doing so with the integrity, independence, and support: to above all “Protect the Resource” -which is the crede of Rangers, not able or willing to do so and actually allowing preventable human pressures and harm to occur to that Resource. It is painful to watch. Painful even to the responsible hunters I know.
The few powerful, self-righteous, greedy, and politically-corrupt are the Resources’ greatest destructive pressures. No surprise. No change. For centuries.
Bison and wolves cannot read signs or maps, and the powerful are themselves unable to read the signs that their progeny will suffer for their actions, and not be protected by their bank accounts. This is simply avarice. Nothing more. However, let’s not kid ourselves. This is avarice protected by indifference.
These issues will be debated, and The Resource will be abused -well beyond anyone living now, I believe. However, and it has been proven true in Colorado that the majority of hunters and land owners are getting far smarter than the truly powerful and are trying to work together, because they see that the Resource is far more important than anything they can hang on their wall or stick in their stomachs. They are slowly proving it. The solutions to these issues are not mutually exclusive, yes not easy, but the goal is very much common, and the Resource need not suffer a patchwork compromise to solve the loggerhead. Perhaps those very rare powerful and caring folks are sensing that being lauded by like-minded greedy power is tantamount to being the king of your own bar-b-que pit. All they are left with, when the fire goes out, is indigestion, the smell of smoke, and a dirty grill.
Smart hunters, eccologists, and all with empathy for ourselves and Nature, know that Protecting the Resource is a 24hr, forever job, when the pressure is Mankind.
Hunters who care, politicians who care, administrators who care, rangers who care, law enforcement who care, and people who care, are everywhere. It is our tolerance of the very few who do not care that gives them power. We are responsible for their horrible, illogical pressures on all of our Resources.
We think that “Protect the Resource” is a pledge and duty of only others. It is not. I have been there and know the rush of knowing how those who believe and follow that path need each other, and not just a pledge. I also have known how those who take that sacred pledge and truly believe that it is everything are disheartened and demoralized when the few, who could wield the greatest support for the Resource, value power over Nature to justify compromising the innocent.
Yet, I am optimistic that a new generation is showing signs of intolerance for power’s illogical abuse of, and acid cloud control over, Nature.
Well said.
I am in agreement and totally appreciate your heartfelt, educated comment for all to read.
Please please do not shoot the wolves. They cannot defend themselves against guns. Let them live their lives naturally.
Ok I really think tht there should be a law against shooting them I heard their packs are getting smaller. I would move them as far away from rural areas not only to keep them alive also people have kids. these animals are beautiful and I am a wolf follower. I would try to keep them alive and well. Catch them and administer shots for what ever disease tht could kill them. People should not have the right to hunt them at all. There has to be some kind of sanctuary for them. If not build one or make one. They have been around for decades and they deserve to walk this land.
Man was created last. The different species of all nature first. Man was created. To tend the garden. Not hunt
the species. Today, these hunters have no excuse. Disobedient children, murderers of create DC species,refusjng to tend the garden
In opposition to the purpose for
man’s creation… if Man ate wolves,
then, that is permitted, but, hunters
Often do not eat what they hunted.
Disobedient children!
Sounds to me like The Yellowstone Wolf Project needs a new leader as the current one doesn’t appear to be very wolf-friendly. The way he oh so casually dismissed the possibility of wolves being slaughtered because they roamed outside of protected lands as “part of the world of the wolf now” sent a horrified shiver down my spine. Please explain why this is even an issue; wolves are a necessary part of a healthy eco system. Cattle are not. Seems pretty simple to me.
Very good story Mike. It still makes me sad about Molly.
Shoot ’em.
Your comment seems short-sighted, uneducated, unnecessarily hateful & a punch to the gut, to the people that care about wildlife, ecosystems & their importance to the planet as well as humanity. Why is the murder of innocent animals appealing to you?
The decision to allow the fall wolf hunt is such a blow to wolf conservation efforts. Have we not learned that wolves are not only necessary, but vital to the ecosystem? I get the need for managing their numbers through hunting, but this situation, it would seem, demands that this be paused and re-evaluated next year. The decision to allow the wolf hunt this fall is irresponsible. What will be lost if these wolves are killed is irreplaceable. Shame on you for not recognizing their importance and protecting them. That is your job, right?
They will be all be killed. Thump opened the law to allowcthem to be hunted. And killed. Disgustijg.
Please protect the Mollie pack and all wolves.
So discussion and free speech is not allowed I see.
Stahler remarked that he’d “hate to see” an old alpha female, like Wolf 1090F, lose her life to hunting. “But you know,” he added, “that’s part of the world of a wolf now, when they leave the protection of a national park.” It’s only a part of the wolf world now because of Wyoming’s failed wildlife management policies and the outsized influence of the ranching, hunting and agricultural communities.
Such a horrible situation I feel for these wolves and all the wild animals who have less and less territory to hunt. I pray that they are safe and move back into the park so they can be protected.
The first thing I thought is that they’re dead. Some trigger happy person will shot them on sight. This is horrible news.
With a little luck they head north back to where they came from they dont belong here
Definitely be interesting to see if Mollies pack continues to feed and hunt on natural food or if they turn to the farmers table for easy handouts. Hopefully if they choose the farmers table route theses pro wolf groups will have them away from domestic food and back to the intended wildlife. Either way it’s in the planning from the beginning.
😩 This is horrible. Hunting should not be allowed at all on the wolves. They have done a lot of good for Yellowstone. They don’t know they’re leaving Yellowstone going into dangerous places.
This group of people in charge of Wyomings wildlife, just proved again that they care nothing for God’s Animals, they probably don’t even go to church or open a Bible, they don’t care about their Eternal Souls, if they did they would Stop the killing of God’s Animals, He made Himself with his hands, if God didn’t care he would have never made them, think would you enjoy watching you pets be murdered, abused, enslaved, beaten to death, tortured in labs, every minute every day, Yet when all this happens he will take their soul home while humans still attack a souless shell, that once lived free, had a mate, a family and a purpose that God told them, God made animals First and said in Genesis that he loves them, just as he said when he made Man and then Woman, God gave Dominion over His Animals and made Adam promise to Name them, Care and Watch over them, Adam did promise. Dominion means to watch, care, love, help, make decisions for them and Protect, no where in any printed book does it mean, Hunt, Murder, enslave, torture, abuse, beat or even eat. The word Dominant means all that, therefore humans who do everything God said not to do, which is listed under Dominant. If any of you or your cold hearted hunts care anything about your Eternal Souls, remember Revelations only 144,400 will be Raptured and I doubt it any of you will be there, although none of you seem to care where you go, because even your sins will be paid by every one in your family, sons, daughters, grandchildren, For God made His Laws Clear in His Ten Commandments, “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Plain and Simple, it doesn’t say Where, When, What, Why, Who, or even How, it simply says “Don’t Kill.” Also in the Bible God himself says, if you Repent for a sin, he will forgive you, if you commit the same sin a second time He will forgive you, if You Knowingly commit that same Sin a Third time, God will not forgive you. For you will Have to ask from those you have committed the sin against, for forgiveness and if they do not, then you wait in Purgatory. No person before Noah hurt, abused, enslaved, or killed any of God’s animals, they were All eating what God gave them from the Earth, after the flood God gave Noah Permission to hunt Only What they Needed to Survive and Until the Earth was Replenishes itself, although too many because carnivores and again broke the promise made to God. Life is a Test to find our way back to God, and through Jesus Christ, it can be done, following the Bible, the choices you make in life will put your Eternal Soul where it belongs, whether good or bad, you will go one way. Make your Choices Wisely. God does not always show Mercy when your Sins are repeating.
Too long.
Get real
Please save your religious tirade for a place where it is acceptable, which is not here. Here is a place for people to express their opinions and viewpoints on what’s currently happening with the Wyoming wolf population. It has Nothing to do with which God someone worships or how often they open a particular book. Please restrain your comments to those applicable tobthe topic at hand, which again does Not include religion in any way, shape or form. Please go away and vent your hate elsewhere.
I believe God put these animals here to take care of us. They feed us (cows, elk, etc) they cloth us, they give us tools and medicines. Early hunters used the entire animal they killed. I don’t recall anywhere in my bible that says we should not kill or eat animals. I don’t recall anywhere in my bible that says we should all be vegans. Let’s chalk this one up to a difference of religion.
“They are one of the most studied, scientifically important wolf families in the world,” Marc Cooke told commissioners. “Once they are gone, decades of irreplaceable knowledge are gone with them.”
A truly idiotic statement. No Mr. Cooke, that knowledge gained through all those studies is not gone.
The wolves have exhausted their food supply in the National Park. Tags outside the park should be unlimited, not limited to a insignificant number like 4.
With disease making recent impacts the way it normally does in overpopulation scenarios, humans have an opportunity to make a meaningful cut in wolf numbers to further protect elk populations of the GYE.
Yes, Chad. There are idiotic statements presented here. Just not by Marc Cooke. So—?
The Mollies have not exhausted their food supply chain. They are quite skilled at taking down Bison , moreso than any other wolf pack. YNP is very very far from exhausting its supply of Bison , which has a conservation surplus adequate to sustain dozens of wolf packs . On the other hand, the domestic cattle that reside in Sunlight Basin are expendable as far as I’m concerned. The Mollies undoubtedly followed the migratory Elk out of the Park on the natural course of predators shadowing prey .I’m hoping the Mollies can be ” persuaded ” to go back over the divide into the Lamar drainages where Bison are beyond plentiful and need some natural conservation. Killing them is the worst option. Resident and migratory Elk are in no urgent need of protection … herd counts are way above objective and have been since the wolves returned. Diseases? Are you serious…?
Dewey you continue to ignore completely UNHEALTHY elk calf to cow ratios.
GYE elk number “objectives” are purely subjective and have been conveniently lowered over the past 30 years to match the wolf induced decline. Allocated GYE elk tags being cut by 80+% is undeniable and you cannot try and explain away.
Obviously you missed the distemper disease hitting GYE wolf populations story a while back. Yes, diseases.
Once again, Mr. Guenter, you are on the wrong side of history and conservation. This state has thousands of cattle and few wolves. Ranchers can stand to lose a few of them. They carry on as if wolves decimate their herds. That is simply ridiculous – and untrue.
Ms McDaniel, forget cattle.
Elk calf survival in the entire GYE has been at unsustainable lows for over a decade.
Hunting areas in Wyoming that used to allocate hundreds-thousand elk tags now down to handfuls.
The next time you see a large herd of elk count the calves. You won’t have to count very high, because the majority are being killed off.
I just wish, from sitting in my home in Anna, Texas, that government and persons will prevail in policies that permit smart choices. I believe in principles over personalities over party.
Ken Mills’s response to the Mollie’s Pack situation — “When we look at packs across the landscape, a breeding pair is a breeding pair. A pack is a pack” — isn’t neutral science. It’s a policy choice dressed up as biology, and it reveals exactly what’s wrong with how Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana manage wolves: reducing a species’ recovery to a bare headcount (10 breeding pairs, 10 packs) treats wolves as interchangeable units to be maintained at a floor, not as the complex, learning, socially structured animals the science actually describes them as.
Mollie’s Pack isn’t just “a pack.” It’s the last direct lineage from Yellowstone’s original 1995 reintroduction — 31 years of continuous, intensively studied genetics and behavior, including a hunting culture (bison-killing) passed down through generations that most wolf packs never develop. Retired Yellowstone Wolf Project leader Doug Smith and current leader Dan Stahler both treat this as scientifically remarkable. Losing that pack doesn’t just subtract one number from a population count — it erases three decades of irreplaceable data and a genetic/cultural lineage that can’t be regrown by an “equivalent” pack elsewhere. Mollie’s Pack has spent 31 years demonstrating the very traits — adaptation, problem-solving, and innovation — that in humans earn recognition and awards; here, that same intelligence is instead met with a hunting quota.
The numbers-only framework also ignores what conservation biology has been saying for years: population resilience depends on genetic diversity and connectivity, not just meeting a minimum count. That’s precisely why courts blocked grizzly delisting in 2018 — inadequate genetic diversity — and why Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming have had to truck bears between ecosystems to try to fix it. Wolf management built solely around hitting 10/10 ignores that same lesson entirely.
Wyoming had a low-cost, low-controversy option here: a one-season closure of hunt area 1, requested by a state legislator, a conservation group VP, and a Jackson Hole activist, citing exactly the kind of “exceptional biological and public-interest circumstance” that should trigger case-by-case judgment. The commission still approved killing up to four wolves in that unit anyway. That’s not “science-based management” — that’s a rigid quota system that can’t tell the difference between a generic pack and a scientifically irreplaceable one, and won’t bend even when asked to.
Thanks for your thoughtful response. But WG&F actually have a lot of creative options to protect this pack. For instance: Closing zone 1 is one action, but they could restrict tags for that zone; change the dates to November 1-Dec 31 as October is when most wolves are killed who are young; decouple zones 1&2 with the 4 quota only in zone 2; change the boundaries of zone 1 to east of the Clark’s Fork. Those are just a few creative suggestions off the top of my head and I’m sure there are others they can think of. I was extremely disappointed and disheartened in the Agency’s refusal to even bring up this new development in Zone 1 at the Commission meeting for public knowledge as well as their obstinance to even try something new to adjust the season.
Has any rancher ever thought of having donkeys or any other animal that would kick and kill anything that came near their cattle? Or maybe that may cost too much?
I hope they use the ideas you suggest. Promote them!
Well stated with factual, relevant information! No doubt that greed & $$ are behind these horrible, irresponsible decisions. The corruption runs deep, as T. removed animals from Endangered Lists in his first term, to allow his sons to hunt them down & display them on their entitled walls. Other Countries “get it” and are giving animals legal rights & true protections, as decent, moral-bound humans should!
