With the opening day of Wyoming’s wolf hunting seasons less than a month away, some hunters claim they’ll be gunning for the famous Mollie’s pack, which left the safety of Yellowstone National Park and ended up in a wolf hunt area on Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest.
One hunter from Nevada, posting under the Kyri Ranch profile on Facebook, openly stated in numerous posts that it’s his goal to kill one of the pack’s leaders, the 12-year-old Wolf 1090F.
“The matriarch 1090F is going down on the 15th of September,” a post from Tuesday said.
The season opens on Sept. 15 in Wyoming’s Wolf Hunt Area 1, where the Mollie’s pack has denned.
The wolf quota for hunt areas 1 and 2 is four.
That means a total of four wolves can be taken in either of those hunt areas or both hunt areas combined.
It’s likely that members of the Mollie’s pack will get shot during the hunting season, regardless of whether people are deliberately targeting them, Cody outdoorsman Ed Epperson told Cowboy State Daily.
“Somebody’s going to run into that pack up there and shoot one,” he said. "That’s just the way it is.”
The Mollie’s are Yellowstone’s oldest wolf pack, dating to the species' restoration to the park after a 70-year absence in 1995. Originally the Crystal Creek Pack, they were renamed in 2000 for Mollie Beattie, who was director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and helped carry the first wolf into the park; she died of lung cancer in 1996.
1090F in the Crosshairs
It is unclear whether Kyri Ranch is an individual’s name or an influencer handle. The page has 14,000 followers.
Messages sent to Kyri Ranch weren’t answered by publication time.
One post from Monday features a photo of a wolf carcass, accompanied by a clip from the ominous song “The End” by the iconic 1960s rock group The Doors.
“The 13th of September I (sic) will be in Wyoming for 4 days. Some obligation that I have to fulfill. I'll be there with another 4 friends. The mission is to harvest the patriarch of the Mollie's wolf pack, the female alpha wolf 1090F,” the post states.
Jonas Black, a social media influencer and wolf advocate from Austin, Texas, told Cowboy State Daily that calls to target the Mollies and 1090 F are “vindictive” and have nothing to do with conservation or ethical hunting.
Black, along with Wolf and Wildlife Advocates president Kim Bean and others, recently posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the identities of any hunters who kill members of the Mollie’s.
They’ve stated they did so in hopes of discouraging people from hunting the the pack.
Black told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that he’d pivoted away from that approach, and the reward had been withdrawn.
“I am collaborating with big hunting vloggers instead,” he stated in a text message.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is strictly forbidden from releasing wolf hunters’ identities, per a state statute meant to protect hunters from harassment.
However, private individuals are free to share that information.
Black said ethical hunters have spoken out against deliberately trying to kill the Mollie's and just want to fill their freezers with venison.
Hunting an animal for a trophy “simply to spite others” is being “disgusting,” he said.
Stay Out of Wyoming’s Business
Epperson said he resents Black and other wolf advocates inserting themselves into Wyoming’s wildlife management by putting up the reward.
“Why do people from other states have to tell us how to manage our critters?” he said.
He added most hunters won’t be able to distinguish Mollie’s pack from any others. Hunters will just be out there trying to fill their tags.
"Wolves just move where they move. It has nothing to do with people trying to kill famous wolves,” he said.
Wyoming Wildlife Federation executive director Craig Benjamin told Cowboy State Daily hunting should be about conservation, not controversy.
“The Wyoming Wildlife Federation believes strongly in the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and in science-based, professional wildlife management,” he said in a text message.
“We also believe that people should treat the wildlife they pursue and one another with respect, and it’s unfortunate when that gets lost in the debate.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
