One of Yellowstone’s most extraordinary wolf families is in immediate danger. Wyoming’s wolf hunting season opens September 15—and a hunter has already publicly declared his intention to kill the pack’s 12-year-old matriarch, 1090F.
Mollie’s Pack is the last remaining wolf pack whose lineage dates to Yellowstone’s historic wolf reintroduction more than 30 years ago. For decades, this remarkable family has lived primarily within the protection of Yellowstone National Park.
Now, for the first time in decades, the pack has established a den outside the park.
Mollie’s Pack is currently living in Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest, within Wolf Hunt Area 1, where the family is raising five pups.
Inside Yellowstone, they are protected. Outside that invisible boundary, they can be legally killed.
And on September 15, Wyoming’s wolf hunting season begins.
A Target Has Already Been Put on This Wolf Family
Wyoming has authorized hunters to kill up to four wolves across Hunt Areas 1 and 2 this season.
That alone puts Mollie’s Pack (and other wolves) at serious risk. But the threat has become even more disturbing.
A hunter has publicly announced his intention to target 1090F when the season opens, reportedly declaring that the Mollie’s Pack matriarch “is going down on the 15th of September.”
1090F is 12 years old—an extraordinary age for a wild wolf—and is Yellowstone’s oldest living wolf. Scientists have studied her and her family for years, making Mollie’s Pack one of the most documented wolf families in the world.
After surviving for 12 years in the wild, she could now be murdered simply because her family established a home on the wrong side of an invisible human boundary.
Wolves Do Not Understand Boundaries
Wildlife is already navigating a rapidly changing world. Habitat loss, climate change, human development and invasion of remote spaces, livestock grazing and other pressures increasingly affect where wild animals can find food and safe places to live.
Wolves naturally travel across enormous territories. They follow food, establish new territories, roam to find mates, and raise their families wherever conditions allow them to survive.
They do not know when they have crossed from Yellowstone National Park into Wyoming hunting territory.
Mollie’s Pack should not face a death sentence simply for behaving like wolves.
These animals did not choose to leave “safety.” They found a place to den and raise their pups.
Now the very place they chose as a home could become a killing ground.
A Living Legacy of Wolf Restoration
There is another reason Mollie’s Pack is so significant.
The pack was named for Mollie Beattie, the first woman to serve as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Beattie fiercely defended the Endangered Species Act and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and played an important role in the historic effort to restore gray wolves to Yellowstone and the American West.
She once said:
“What a country chooses to save is what a country chooses to say about itself.”
More than 30 years after wolves were returned to Yellowstone, the last remaining pack from that historic reintroduction—and the wolf family carrying Mollie Beattie’s name—now faces being slaughtered by hunters.
What we choose to do about it says something about us, too.
Take Action Before September 15
There is still time to protect Mollie’s Pack.
Please join us in calling on the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to close Hunt Area 1 to wolf hunting and protect Mollie’s Pack before the season begins.
The Center for Biological Diversity has launched an action to help protect this extraordinary wolf family:
Help Save Yellowstone’s Oldest Wolf Pack
Sign the petition. Add a personal message. Share this alert.
And please consider going one step further: tell Wyoming that wolves should not be killed for trophies or recreation at all.
September 15 is approaching.
Mollie’s Pack has survived for more than 30 years.
1090F has survived 12 years in the wild.
Five young pups are depending on their family.
They should not have to survive hunters, too.
Please speak out for Mollie’s Pack while there is still time.
We are sharing the petition from the Center for Biological Diversity:
Please sign and share!
