"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. The scene isn't out of the ordinary for the Wapiti Lake Pack, whose territory encompasses Yellowstone's sagebrush-covered Hayden Valley in the center of the park."
"First, she spent time around Mammoth Hot Springs. Then she crossed the park's 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'd crossed an invisible line where the national park gives way to state rule."
Wolf 1331F was collared as a pup in 2021 as part of a decades-long Yellowstone study and lived with the Wapiti Lake Pack. The pack occupies Hayden Valley and regularly hunts elk and bison, often observed by tourists inside the park. In late 2024 telemetry shows 1331F moved north, spending time near Mammoth Hot Springs before crossing into Montana. Outside park boundaries, public and private lands are more remote and wolf watchers are rarer. Wolves are protected from hunting inside Yellowstone but can be legally killed by gun, trap or snare under state rules outside the park. Staff tracked her signals north on January 24, 2025.
Read at High Country News
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