Wolves Of Yellowstone Poster

Two Wolves near Yellowstone national park. Northern Rocky Mountain wolves, a subspecies of the grey wolf (Canis lupus), were native to Yellowstone when the park was established in 1872. Predator control was practiced here in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Between 1914 and 1926, at least 136 wolves were killed in the park; by the 1940s, wolf packs were rarely reported. By the 1970s, scientists found no evidence of a wolf population in Yellowstone; wolves persisted in the lower 48 states only in northern Minnesota and on Isle Royale in Michigan. An occasional wolf likely wandered into the Yellowstone area; however, no verifiable evidence of a breeding pair of wolves existed through the mid 1990s. In the early 1980s, wolves began to reestablish themselves near Glacier National Park in northern Montana; an estimated 75 wolves inhabited Montana in 1996. At the same time, wolf reports were increasing in central and north-central Idaho, and wolves were occasionally reported in the state of Washington. The wolf is listed as "endangered" throughout its historic range in the lower 48 states except in Minnesota, where it is "threatened."