Keystone wolf pack in the crosshairs
Over three decades, generations of Mollie’s wolves have contributed to one of North America’s longest-known intact wolf lineages.
The Mollie’s Pack is in danger of trophy hunting this fall. Mollie’s Pack is more than just one of Yellowstone’s wolf families. It is the last remaining pack connected to the wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995. The pack was named in honor of Mollie Beattie, the first woman to lead the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and an important figure in Yellowstone’s wolf restoration.
Over three decades, generations of Mollie’s wolves have contributed to one of North America’s longest-known intact wolf lineages. Researchers have followed their social relationships, movements, survival and remarkable adaptation to Yellowstone’s interior. The Mollies were also the first Yellowstone pack known to master hunting bison, a difficult behavior passed between generations through observation and experience.
Today, the pack includes five adults and five dependent pups. Among the adults is 1090F, a 12-year-old female and one of the oldest wolves ever documented in the Yellowstone region. Her age, the pack’s learned behavior and its continuous history make this family scientifically and culturally irreplaceable.
After spending most of its history within Yellowstone, the pack’s recent movements have taken its members beyond the park’s protected boundaries into a Wyoming Trophy Hunt Area. Wolf hunting season opens Sept. 15, and the state has authorized the killing of up to four wolves in Wolf Trophy Hunt Area 1.
For Wyoming Untrapped, keeping responsibility for Wyoming’s persecuted wolves here at home has always been a priority. We have spent years advocating before the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, informing the public, building relationships and pressing for wildlife policies that recognize wolves as more than numbers within a population.
When Mollie’s Pack became vulnerable to hunting and trapping, we urged the commission to close Wolf Trophy Hunt Area 1 for the 2026 season, but it declined to take action. This exceptional circumstance offers Wyoming an opportunity to show that responsible adaptive management can account for scientific importance, learned behavior, family structure and public value.
Mollie’s Pack needs protection whenever its members are outside Yellowstone National Park. The Center for Biological Diversity has joined Wyoming Untrapped and other advocates in this effort, adding new ways for people nationwide to participate. Through SavingWolves.org, supporters can learn more about the pack, contact the commission, share personal stories, participate in a children’s art campaign and help amplify the call for protection. You can also view Wyoming Untrapped Take-Action for additional talking points.
Wyoming residents have an especially important voice. Please contact the Game and Fish commissioners before the hunt season opens on Sept. 15, continue speaking out ahead of the Sept. 21 commission meeting and encourage others to join the campaign. The Mollie’s deserve our protection!
Lisa Robertson is founder and president of Wyoming Untrapped and has worked on land conservation projects for 40 years. Guest Shots are solely the opinion of their author.
Please explore our website to learn how you can take action and help push for stronger protections for wildlife and animals across our state.
Together, we can demand better.