Five wolves killed near Yellowstone. Here's why officials won't press charges.

One of Yellowstone National Park’s most iconic apex predators was found dead with a gunshot wound near the park, Montana game officials said.

Officials learned of the animal’s death when its GPS collar sent a mortality signal, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said in a Nov. 5 news release.

The signal led authorities to a wolf carcass in Wolf Management Unit (WMU) 313. Only three wolves were allowed to be hunted in the area, which borders Yellowstone’s northern boundary, and the Fish and Wildlife Commission had closed the wolf harvest there because that quota had been met, the department said.

Based on evidence around the carcass, game officials don’t believe hunters killed the wolf illegally — or even intentionally.

“Evidence on site suggests the wolf was shot and had taken refuge in heavy cover,” officials said in the release. “The carcass did not appear to have been tampered with or deliberately placed. Based upon the condition of the carcass, FWP believes this wolf was unknowingly wounded when the four other wolves harvested in WMU 313 were taken.”

No wolves had previously been harvested at that point, even though multiple hunters held licenses, officials said.

“Hunters who knowingly wound animals they are pursuing are obligated to attempt to recover those animals,” the department said. “However, if recovery is impossible or hunters lose the trail, and the animal ultimately dies, there is no violation. Based upon the site visit and information gathered during the carcass inspection of the other wolves harvested in WMU 313, FWP is not investigating this circumstance as an illegal activity.”

Once the three-wolf quota was met in that hunting unit on Oct. 26, the department closed it to hunters, officials said. Game officials gave the public a 24-hour notice that it would close on Oct. 25, during which hunting would still be legal, the department said.

Still, the death of the wolf and another put one of the state’s smallest hunting units two wolves above the quota over the course of a single weekend, which is significant, KBZK reported.

“A particular wolf in a pack being removed via harvest could result in the pack just falling apart or eliminating altogether,” Brooke Shifrin, the wildlife program manager with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, told the station.

“The impact of that is pretty significant when you think about one of the most iconic national parks in the world that brings millions of people to our region each year to see wildlife alive in the landscape,” she told the station.

Wolf watching can bring in significant sums of money for the gateway communities surrounding the park, the station reported. A 2022 economic study by Park County, which borders the park’s northern boundary in Montana, suggests wolf watching generates an average of $82 million annually.

Although more wolves were killed in the unit this year than the Greater Yellowstone Coalition hoped for, the nonprofit in a blog post shared across the group’s social media pages still praised the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s efforts to prevent significant disruption to the park’s wolf packs.

“While splitting the area north of Yellowstone into two WMUs and implementing a quota of three wolves in each unit did not work as well as hoped, it was still an important step in the right direction for wolf management in Montana,” the organization said.

By comparison, 13 Yellowstone wolves were killed last year before these policies were implemented, the group said.

“GYC advocates for science-based and ethical wolf management policies that acknowledge the value of wolves,” the nonprofit said. “Despite the outcome of this season, this year’s regulations in the units bordering Yellowstone represent a small but crucial step in that direction.”