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Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Wildlife

[{"type":"text","text":"How many wolverines are in Yellowstone National Park?"}]

The National Park Service doesn’t have an easy answer for a census of these 

Neither does biologist Jim Halfpenny, but he does have an estimate based on decades of confirmed evidence — and it’s a lot more than most people think.

 seven “documented” wolverines in the region from 2006-2009. Halfpenny’s nearly 50 years of research says there are dozens more, at least 31 verified in the last five years and "83 absolute verified wolverines” since 1990.

That was the story Halfpenny shared recently at the historic Range Riders Lodge in Silver Gate, Montana. Dozens of people attended his presentation on what he calls the “elusive, sparse, and downright rare wolverine.”

“Tonight, I’m dealing with verified reports only,” he said. “No matter how much I trust somebody who says they saw a wolverine, that's not counted. This is where I have positive verification.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bad PR"}]

The wolverine, in Halfpenny’s opinion, has a bad reputation through no fault of its own. He’s spent decades reversing their public image by fastidiously learning more about them.

“We're going to talk about the real wolverine,” he said. “The real wolverine is quite a different creature than the stories you probably grew up with.”

The wolverine has been known by many names, among them “the Devil Bear,” “the Glutton,” and “The Evil One.”

Even Peter Krott, a biologist who hand-raised wolverines alongside his own children, titled his 1959 book on wolverines “Demon of the North.”

“I hate to say it, (but) the wolverine is a plain out-and-out victim of bad PR,” Halfpenny said.

Halfpenny has been tracking and studying wolverines in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem since 1979. In that time, he said he’s seen the truth about “the curious big weasel.”

“Dave Need and I picked up a grant for $80,000, which was a lot of money then, for three years of chasing lynx and wolverine,” he said. “That was the start of the wolverine hair snagging for the United States.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fact And Fiction"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wolverines have long been depicted as almost mythical creatures. "}]

The earliest accounts from North American explorers depict them as fearless, vicious, and ill-tempered animals that battle bears and eviscerate anything in their path.

Halfpenny has always been focused on verification. When it comes to understanding the truth of the wolverine, everything else is pointless.

“There's two basic eras of wolverine knowledge: the natural history books and things that we read there, and the modern science,” he said.

The natural history books say a wolverine could grow up to 80 pounds. Modern science, in the form of over 700 in-the-field weighings of wild wolverines in North America, reached a much more conservative conclusion.

“The largest weight ever is 37 pounds,” Halfpenny said. “A male might hit 35, but the average weight is around 30 pounds.”

Natural history says a fully grown wolverine could be more than 6 feet long. Modern science hasn’t found a wolverine larger than 3 feet long.

Halfpenny has seen wolverines interact with grizzlies but never engage them in combat. If anything, wolverines are extremely deferential to their much larger neighbors.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wolverines were also nearly hunted to extinction. "}]

In fact, Halfpenny believes they might have been extinct in Montana by 1920, partly due to the National Park Service's early archaic anti-predator policies.

“If you read the Yellowstone superintendent’s report from 1877, which really irritates me, it says, ‘strychnine poisoning for wolves and wolverine habitats will go on in Yellowstone.’ That was the period of massive predator slaughter in the ecosystem,” he said.

Halfpenny asked his audience to make a mental note that a wolverine had been spotted in the southeast corner of Yellowstone in 1871.

“Put that in your memory,” he said. “We’re going to come back to it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rocky Mountain Reunion"}]

Halfpenny’s story of wolverines was simultaneously a story of how technology changed the dynamic of wildlife conservation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

When he started studying wolverines, the first method of verification was to physically trap the elusive animals.

“We had a 12-foot-square cage with a noose inside,” he said. “We grabbed the back legs, laid them in the center of a tarp, and rolled them up like a hot dog.”

He had a special guest on his earliest trapping projects: singer, songwriter, and actor John Denver, who chronicled the adventure in the 1978 television movie “

“John pitched in just like everybody else and worked his tail end off to do that,” Halfpenny said. “It was great to be working with him.”

In one scene, Denver is carrying one end of a wolverine cage with a wolverine inside through a blizzard in the mountains. Halfpenny noted the peculiar way Denver was walking that had nothing to do with the deep, blowing snow.

“If you look at the end (of the cage), that opening's big enough for a wolverine paw to come through and get a piece of John's ass, to put it one way,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Science Marches On"}]

As Halfpenny continued trapping, other scientists were undertaking the first modern studies of wolverines in North America. 

The next big advancement was radio-collaring, started by Howard Hayes in northwest Montana.

Then in the 1980s, Halfpenny became acquainted with CyberTracker. It was a handheld computer program developed by Louis Liebenberg to track and study wild animals in South Africa.

“He developed a picture-icon system for PDAs,” Halfpenny said. “It was a way to manage wildlife without a budget.”

When the Wildlife Conservation Society started trapping wolverines in the 1990s, they introduced implanted trackers and DNA sampling.

“By grabbing DNA samples, we could start looking at the populations,” Halfpenny said. “With radio collars and CyberTracker, we could create a map and gather years of behavioral studies.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then in the 2000s, biologists had the money for helicopter surveys."}]

These individual studies pooled their knowledge and assembled the first comprehensive analysis of wolverine diversity and distribution in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Halfpenny had an unlikely ally in his endeavors. "}]

He regularly worked with commercial fur trackers, who diligently informed him when they trapped a wolverine and allowed him to see, study, and measure the specimen for first-hand verification.

[{"type":"text","text":"“The trappers always provided us with locations and DNA,” he said."}]

That’s why he categorized the classification and federal protection of the wolverine as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 2023 as “a trade-off.”

“That seems like it might be good for the wolverine, but it's poor for our knowledge,” he said. “It depends on which side of the coin you want to take.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Inheritance"}]

In August 2022, biologists Doug McCartney, Steve Moore, and Bill Turner were hiking in the mountains in the southeast corner of Yellowstone. 

That’s when they saw something incredible: 

13 wolverines in the same snow-covered bowl.

Halfpenny said this sighting has been “highly disputed.” After extensive forensic analysis of McCartney’s photos, pixel-by-pixel in Gaia GPS and Photoshop, he feels he has verified 12 of the 13 wolverines.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I can’t find the 13th one,” he said."}]

He could even verify that the wolverines in the photos were two adult males, three adult females, and two other adults, with the rest being younger individuals.

With no carcass in the area, Halfpenny has an incredible theory: family inheritance.

“I think one of those was an adult female with an adult male,” he said. “The other two females were daughters, each of whom had their two (offspring), and one was mated with the second adult male.”

As evidence, Halfpenny cited the sighting of a wolverine in the same area in 1871.

“This is favorable habitat,” he said. “I can’t prove it, but I'm arguing this is a family unit that's taken over that area.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"So, How Many?"}]

Then there’s the debate over just how many wolverines are in Yellowstone.

The “old park estimate,” according to Halfpenny, was six individuals. After decades of research and verifiable evidence, Halfpenny says the actual number is “much higher.”

[{"type":"text","text":"However, that doesn’t make it any easier to give a hard number."}]

“Yellowstone is 3,400 square miles, and the ecosystem is 23,000 square miles,” he said. “You want me to tell you how many secretive, elusive, 3-foot-long creatures there are in that area? Yeah, thanks.”

Nonetheless, Halfpenny has a number: 83 verified wolverines between 1990 and 2026, and at least 31 individuals verified in Yellowstone in the last five years.

“No question,” he said. “I have the evidence. I have 83 absolute verified wolverines.”

Halfpenny is so confident in his estimate because he and his colleagues are able to identify wolverines individually based on their appearance. 

Everything from a wolverine’s ears, cheeks, and tail to its movement and coloration can be ascribed to an individual known from photos, trail cams, or DNA analysis.

That’s led Halfpenny to believe, with “no question,” that Yellowstone’s wolverine population is increasing, all based on verifiable evidence.  

“If we sit down and look over the years at the number of positive verifications, starting back in 2015, what you see is the numbers increasing,” he said. “It’s more than just cellphones. A lot of these we had in hand, either dead, collared, or anesthetized.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Shoot, Shoot, Shoot'"}]

Over time, Halfpenny and his colleagues have developed an understanding of the biology, ecology, and geographic range of wolverines, leading to a better assessment of their population health and conservation status.

Nobody’s trapping or radio-collaring wolverines anymore, and CyberTracker has been obsolete for decades, he said. 

The key to the scientific verification of wolverine verification in Yellowstone is in the hands of citizen scientists.

As smartphones became more widespread in the late 2000s, the number of wolverine sightings in Yellowstone increased.

Halfpenny has used amateur photographers of wolverines to build his scientific case for the growing population of wolverines.

“These excellent photos and videos have characteristics we can recognize,” he said.

Yellowstone visitors don’t have to venture too long before having a chance sighting of bison, elk, grizzlies, or wolves without leaving their vehicle. 

If they want a guaranteed sighting of these animals, there are certain hotspots where they have a higher chance.

“Where can I find a wolverine in Yellowstone? They are where they find you,” Halfpenny said.

On a practical level, wolverines seem to favor the northeast and southeast corners of the park, as it appears to be their ideal habitat.

It’s much easier to find wolverine tracks, especially in the snow. That’s why Halfpenny says every Yellowstone visitor should carry a 6-inch ruler with them.

“(If) you find a track, get a ruler in there,” he said. “Don't put a hand. Don't put a foot. Don't put a $1 bill. We need something solid with exact measurements. Even a comb or a pen is better. Hands don’t count.”

Regardless, Halfpenny wants any and all photos and videos of wolverines in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

That, he said, is the next chapter of “the wolverine story” and why he encouraged anyone with a smartphone or camera to “shoot, shoot, shoot.”

“We need positive evidence of wolverines, and all the reports I've talked about tonight come from positive, verified evidence,” he said. “Photos are cheap. Electrons are cheap. So, shoot, shoot, shoot and send (your photos) to me.”

Wolverine in Yellowstone 12 8 23

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Biologist Says There Are Dozens More Verified Wolverines In Yellowstone Than Reported | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A prominent biologist with 50 years of research says there are dozens more confirmed wolverines in Yellowstone than are reported by the National Park Service. He says there at least 31 verified wolverines in the last five years and 83 since 1990.

Biologist Says There Are Dozens More Verified Wolverines In Yellowstone Than Reported

Kerry Drake

Collisions between cars and wildlife are notoriously bad for all involved, though sometimes lucky drivers walk away without a scratch and animals may receive a glancing blow that surprises them but doesn’t make them roadkill.

[{"type":"text","text":"But how probable is it that a driver in Wyoming will hit a wild animal?"}]

The Wyoming Game & Fish Department said annually there are about 7,600 vehicle collisions with big game, resulting in wildlife and personal injury costs.

 data estimates that the odds of Wyoming motorists having an animal collision are 1 in 82. That makes the state the ninth highest at-risk state in the nation. 

For the record, the list is topped by West Virginia, with odds of 1 in 40. The safest state is Nevada, with a probability of 1 in 966. Nationally, the average is 1 in 139.

Cowboy State Daily talked to some Wyoming motorists who have crashed into wildlife (or vice versa, depending on one’s perspective). 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Beware Other Traffic"}]

Michael McDill of Casper had a harrowing experience that involved a big buck deer and another driver who wasn’t paying attention to the scene.

McDill was westbound on the the city's Outer Drive, just past College Drive and before the Yessness Pond turnaround.

“The buck deer came charging up the right side incline so fast in front of me that I hit my brakes and laid on the horn,” he recalled. “I think it was running away from a dog.”

McDill said the deer jumped away from his truck but he clipped him in the rear anyway.

“He spun around in the middle of the road, and just about the time I got stopped, I was slammed into by a truck coming up behind me,” McDill said. “The other driver was watching the deer and did not realize I had stopped.”

What happened next is not included in the odds listed in State Farm’s study, which didn’t document what happens when another vehicle is also involved in the collision.

“(The truck driver) hit me so hard that it twisted my frame, totaling my truck and demolishing the drone of the other driver’s truck,” McDill said. “Luckily nobody was hurt.”

[{"type":"text","text":"But what happened to the buck? "}]

“He got up and trotted off the road,” he recalled. “Probably had a sore rear end for a couple of days.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mother Lives, Fawn Dies"}]

Janet Cunningham said she and her husband were driving down the canyon on Highway 230 toward Laramie when a deer bounded in front of their truck.

“We barely missed her, but then her fawn was following and it ran into our right front tire,” she recalled. “It broke my heart to see the mother turn at the edge of the forest and look back for her baby.”

The couple stopped, as did the person behind them. 

“The guy pulled the fawn off the road and told us it was dead,” Cunningham said. “We were thankful that it wasn’t just hurt badly and suffering.”

But it was nerve-rattling for the Cunninghams. 

“I cried most of the way to Laramie,” she said.

Even if someone hasn’t experienced staring directly into the eyes of a moose they’re about to hit, it’s easy to understand their terror at what would happen next.

“We were on our way to see a (University of Wyoming) Cowboys game,” Jill Van Overbeke told Cowboy State Daily. “It was after dark in our trusty Toyota Highlander.

“We walked away but the moose didn’t.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Turn Of The Wheel"}]

“We were on our way to see a (University of Wyoming) Cowboys game,” Jill VanOverbeke told Cowboy State Daily. “It was after dark in our trusty Toyota Highlander.”

She remembered the moose just appeared in front of them.

 “I was driving about 78 mph,” VanOverbeke said. “I turned the wheel a tiny bit and hit her head. The impact point was the driver’s side windshield and she was killed instantly.”

The animal dropped onto the middle of the interstate and was hit by many more cars, with several launching into the air. 

“We ended up on the side of the road with the windshield smashed into a million pieces,” she said.

In addition to the moose, VanOverbeke’s diamond in her wedding ring was a casualty; she said it popped out.

“My son, maybe 10 or 11, was asleep in the back seat,” she said. “He sat up screaming his head off. My husband and I were OK, just stunned. I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn’t turned that wheel — it probably would have landed in our laps.”

To make matters worse, VanOverbeke said they missed the game.

Here’s an example of someone doing a good deed only to be at the wrong place at the wrong time:

Melissa Connely was at her home in Casper when she got a call from her sister, whose car broke down in Medicine Bow. On the way to pick her up, Connely came to Bates Hole, where she knew from experience there were a lot of deer, so she slowed down.

“Sure enough, around the bend, a herd was standing and there was no way to avoid them. I slammed on the brakes and hit a doe,” she recalled.

Connely said the damage was a caved grill and a busted headlight. The deer flipped over the hood and took out the side mirror before leaving the scene of the accident.

She said her two young girls and sister, who were traveling with her, were shaken. 

“I didn’t know what to say to calm the girls,” Connely said, so she made up a story.

“I told them that mommy coyote would take the deer to feed her puppies,” she said. “That seemed to help.”

She worried about what would happen if she hit another deer and broke the second headlight. 

“I was so sad (thinking) if the deer was killed,” Connely said. “It took years for me to drive at night again, and I still think of it every time I drive that stretch of road. I will never lose that sad memory.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Close Call"}]

In the case of Chesie Lee of Riverton, it was the animal that struck her — a gray area because State Farm does not list the odds of an animal colliding with a vehicle as opposed to vice versa.

Lee was driving on Wyoming Highway 135, on her way to Riverton from Laramie.

“I saw an antelope on the left side of the road that was beginning to cross the road in front of me,” she remembers. “I pulled over and came to a complete stop. I braced myself as it knocked my sideview mirror across the road when it made a 180-degree turn, avoiding collision with my car door. I don’t know if it was injured.”

Lee wasn’t able to reattach the mirror but otherwise came through the incident unscathed. That paled, she said, “to the shock of seeing it headed right toward me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Deer Most Often Hit"}]

In its study, State Farm noted the industry processed 1.7 million claims involving animal collections nationally from July 2024 to June 2025. That’s about a 100,000 drop from the previous year.

About 1.1 million of the claims involved hitting deer. Autumn is the peak season for such accidents. 

As Cowboy State Daily has previously reported, the end of daylight savings time is 

, and the number of deer getting hit on America’s highways jumps by 16% the week after clocks are moved back an hour and leaves more people 

Wyoming Game and Fish Department spokeswoman Amanda Fry said wildlife crossings, which are projects funded by her department, the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and wildlife and community groups, significantly lower the number of vehicle-wildlife collisions.

“Those are incredibly effective,” Fry said of wildlife crossings. “Underpasses and overpasses, coupled with wildlife-proof fencing, can reduce crashes by 80 to 90% and allow wildlife to cross roads and get to their seasonal ranges.”

Proper fencing and additional gates can help wildlife cross roads more quickly and avoid conflicts with traffic, she added, and reducing vegetation on the side of roads can make wildlife more visible to drivers.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Roadkill Can Be Taken"}]

But what if you have a collision and a big-game animal is dead? Is it legal to take roadkill?

It is under Wyoming law, but there are requirements and restrictions.

You need approval from Wyoming Game and Fish before collecting roadkill deer, elk, pronghorn, moose, wild bison or wild turkey from vehicle collisions. You can request approval on an incident-by-incident basis through the 511 WYO ROADS mobile app.

But collecting roadkill wildlife can be dangerous. Game and Fish urges motorists to avoid collecting roadkill if traffic is on the highway. The entire animal must be taken and the inedible portions must be properly disposed of in an approved landfill.

You can’t collect roadkill within construction areas or national parks in Wyoming.

Parking off the road is required, and you must turn on your vehicle’s emergency flashers. Field dressing is not allowed on the roadway.

Kerry Drake can be reached at: Kerry@CowboyStateDaily.com

Roadkill deer 7 5 26

<title>Drivers On Wyoming’s Remote Roads Hit A Lot Of Wildlife, And Deer Most Of All | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Deer are by far the most hit animal on Wyoming's highways, but elk, pronghorn and moose are on also on the list. A report from State Farm says the odds of Wyoming motorists having an animal collision are 1 in 82, the 9th highest at-risk state in the nation. 

Drivers On Wyoming’s Remote Roads Hit A Lot Of Wildlife, And Deer Most Of All

Wendy

Wendy Corr

Business & Tourism

Business

It’s a twist on the familiar image of a sunset over cattle on the Wyoming range, where several small growers have turned to a longer-necked, softer-footed species — alpacas.

These gentle, shy, and highly herd-oriented animals are generally friendlier with humans than their llama cousins (both species are South American members of the camelid family), and their fiber produces soft, lightweight fleece comparable to cashmere.

Many small ranchers in Wyoming are choosing to raise alpacas rather than other livestock for more than just these reasons.

“They are the easiest livestock animal we have ever dealt with, and I think we've dealt with every kind of livestock animal out here,” said Jan Sapp, who with her husband keeps a herd of 108 as Powell-based 

“They are smart,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “They are curious. It takes us about three days of 15 minutes per day to train an alpaca to be parade ready — from they've never been haltered to being able to walk in a parade.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wyoming Is Alpaca Country"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming’s climate is ideal for alpacas. "}]

The animals evolved in the mountainous terrain of the South American Andes, and their bodies are in tune with high-altitude regions and often extreme temperatures. 

Sapp said she first learned about the benefits of alpaca fleece when her husband, who is a part-time missionary, would go to Peru and bring back alpaca sweaters for her. 

“I was a special education teacher in Florida, and even though when you think of Florida you don't think cold, air conditioning is really cold,” she said. “I would wear the alpaca sweaters, and they were wonderful. They kept me warm, and I didn't get too hot.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Sapp also learned that alpaca wool is hypoallergenic. "}]

“It does not have lanolin, and usually lanolin is what people are allergic to,” she said. “It's also about five times warmer than sheep's wool.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Business"}]

Sapp said that when she and her husband started seriously considering moving West, their three adult sons thought that sounded like a great idea and decided to move with their folks.

“When we knew that they wanted to come West with us, I thought, ‘Well, what could we do as a family?'” she said. “So I started researching alpacas.” 

An unsolicited email promoting an alpaca growers’ seminar in Oregon piqued Sapp’s interest, and the family decided to attend just to get a feel for the industry. 

“We all said, ‘OK, we are going to go learn about Alpacas, but we are not going to buy alpacas,’” said Sapp. “We came back to Florida owning seven females and a share of a stud.”

The Sapps began researching suitable plots of land in Wyoming. On a property-search mission to the Sheridan area, they took a wrong turn on the way back from Yellowstone National Park and found themselves in Powell.

“I had brought my daughter-in-law, who'd never been West, and a stack of real estate papers,” said Sapp. “She was looking through the papers, and she says, ‘Hey, I think I see this property that's for sale.’ 

“And so we swung in, and there's like seven people in a minivan that piled out, and the lady was in the yard, and I said, ‘Is it still for sale?’ And she paused, and she said, ‘Well, yes, it is.’ And it was perfect, because we needed housing for essentially three families.”

To make an income from their alpaca adventure, the Sapps partnered with other business owners to create everything from socks and sweaters to potholders and trivets, items that the Sapps offer for sale at their 

“The socks can be worn year round, because they keep your feet warm in the winter, but then they wick moisture off your feet so they keep cooler in the summer,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mountain Business"}]

Mariann Eckendorf and her daughter, Maria, have been raising alpacas since 2005 in Parkman, a small community in the Big Horns.

They own 21 of the animals, and their focus is on the fiber — shearing, carding, spinning and weaving their own alpaca fleece products.

“We shear them ourselves, and then we card the fiber and spin and weave and crochet and do wet felting and dry felting,” she explained. “Every single hair gets sold every year as a finished, value-added product.”

Eckendorf said that she also started her alpaca business for family reasons.

“After the birth of my one and only daughter, Maria, I wanted to stay home with her,” she said. “I was a school teacher, and I wanted to stay home and raise her and not put her in day care.”  

In Wyoming beef country, many small ranchers now raise alpacas. Their fleece is great and their poop is exceptional for growing vegetables. Plus, their temperament is unmatched. “They're the easiest livestock animal we have ever dealt with," one owner said.