An outbreak of canine distemper and other setbacks has left northwest Wyoming’s wolf population at a 20-year low, so the quota for the upcoming wolf hunting seasons is less than half of last year’s.
As of Jan. 1, there were 132 wolves in the wolf management area in northwest Wyoming, state Game and Fish Department biologist Ken Mills told the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, during the commission’s meeting Tuesday in Sheridan.
The Game and Fish Department’s objective is for 160 wolves in that area, said Mills, a large carnivore biologist and wolf management specialist.
The department recommended setting the wolf mortality quota for the 2026 hunting season at 20, less than half of the 2025 44-wolf quota.
The mortality quota designates the number of wolves that can die, by any cause, before the hunt is shut down.
If the mortality quota is met before the end date of the hunting season in that area, the hunting season is still shut down, regardless of how many hunters are left holding unfilled tags.
Hunters killed 31 wolves in 2025, falling short of the 44-wolf quota, Mills said.
What About 1090F?
Fans of Yellowstone National Park’s famous Wolf 1090F said her pack is denning in one of the hunt areas.
Some asked the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to carve out an exception to the proposed 2026 season regulations and suspend hunting in that area.
The commission voted unanimously to accept the wolf hunting seasons as proposed by the Game and Fish Department. Those include a quota of four wolves total in Hunt Areas 1 and 2 (Clarks Fork, North Fork).
Wolf 1090’s pack, the Mollie’s pack, is now denning on the Shoshone National Forest in Hunt Area 1.
The wolf hunt season there is set to run from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31.
In January, Wolf 1090F reached the age of 11 years, 9 months, making her the oldest living wolf in Yellowstone National Park.
At that time, she surpassed the age of the legendary 907F, who died at roughly 11 years, 8 months old on Christmas Day in 2024 a few days after a fight with members of a rival wolf pack.
No Break For The Mollie’s Pack
Just prior to the commission voting on the wolf seasons, Lisa Robertson of Wyoming Untrapped and Marke Cooke of Wolves of the Rockies called in to the meeting via Zoom to object.
Given the decline in the wolf population, Wyoming Untrapped and other wolf advocates would like to see wolf hunting suspended for two years, Robertson said.
Or, at least hunting should be suspended this year in Hunt Area 1 to protect Wolf 1090F and the rest of the Mollie’s pack, she said.
That would preserve an “internationally-recognized and highly-studied wolf pack,” she said.
Cooke also emphasized that the Mollie’s pack is prized by wolf researchers.
“Once they are gone, decades of irreplaceable knowledge are gone with them,” he told the commission.
Sparing the Mollie’s pack from being hunted could also bolster Wyoming’s image, Cooke said, adding that, "Wyoming is getting pretty beat up lately on some wildlife issues."
There have recently been high-profile cases of alleged wildlife abuse in Wyoming.
Those include Daniel resident Cody Roberts capturing, tormenting and killing a wolf in February 2024. Also, a Unita County rancher allegedly videotaping two others torturing a sickly moose.
Commissioner John Masterson noted that the Mollie’s pack is popular and frequently watched and photographed.
“From a pure management, scientific standpoint, is there anything substantially unique about that pack?” he asked the commission.
Mills responded that from the department’s perspective, “a breeding pair is a breeding pair, a pack is a pack” in terms of monitoring and managing wolves.
Numbers Down
Wolves in Wyoming fall under three classifications, depending upon where they are in the state.
Inside Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, they remain protected and may not be hunted.
In areas immediately adjacent to the park — in the Game and Fish wolf management zone — they may be shot by licensed hunters only during set seasons and within mortality quota limits.
Outside of the management zone, which is about 85% of Wyoming, wolves are classified as a predatory animal and may be killed at any time, with no limits or hunting tag required.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming is “committed” to maintain a population of 100 wolves, including 10 breeding pairs, inside the management zone, Mills said.
A breeding pair is male and female wolf that successfully raise at least two pups through the end of December.
Game and Fish wolf objectives include a “buffer” above the federal commitment, Mills said.
The department’s objective is for 160 wolves and 13 or 14 breeding pairs inside the wolf management zone, he said.
At the beginning of the year, there were 132 wolves in 22 packs, including 10 breeding pairs, Mills said.
The decline in wolf numbers might be largely due to an outbreak of canine distemper, which started in the fall of 2025 and has been especially hard on wolf pups, Mills said.
Wolf populations tend to recover quickly, he added.
For the wolf population stabilize at 160 by the end of 2026, as many as 63 could die of all causes, he said.
Of those, 35 could be “human-caused” wolf deaths by year’s end, Mills said.
Allowing for 15 wolves to be killed for such things as attacking livestock, that leaves a hunters’ quota of 20 across the entire wolf management zone, he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
