About Yellowstone Wolves
The wolf that inhabited Yellowstone National Park prior to 1924 was the
Northern Rocky Mountain wolf (Canis lupus irremotus), a subspecies of the Gray Wolf.
Because wolves preyed on settler’s livestock, they were exterminated from Yellowstone in 1924.
Wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995. The reintroduced wolves were not the same subspecies that inhabited Yellowstone before 1924, but rather Canadian wolves (Canis lupus occidentalis), also a sub-species of the Gray Wolf.
As of late 2024, about 120 wolves resided within Yellowstone National Park, organized into about 8 to 11 packs.