Greater Yellowstone’s most iconic predator.
There is no predator in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem more iconic than the wolf. This intelligent and highly social animal lives in socially complex packs averaging 10 individuals. Typically, there is only one breeding pair in a pack. They, especially the alpha female (the mother of the pack), are the glue keeping the pack together. The loss of a parent can have a devastating impact on social group cohesion, and can cause the entire pack to dissolve.
Wolves consume a wide variety of prey, large and small. They efficiently hunt large prey that other predators cannot usually kill. In a pack, the older and more experienced wolves share hunting strategies and techniques with younger wolves, passing down knowledge from one generation to the next, maintaining a culture unique to that pack. In Yellowstone, 90% of their winter prey is elk; 10–15% of their summer prey is deer. Recent research shows that wolves in the park have started to kill more bison than in previous years.
There is an estimated 94 wolves running in eight packs within Yellowstone National Park. Another 26 wolves were picked up during surveys on the peripheries of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, including the wolves within the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole. Thanks to protection, wolf numbers have been increasing steadily since their reintroduction to Yellowstone in 1995.