A notable storyline during Wyoming’s wolf-hunting season, which begins Sept. 15, involves a famous Yellowstone National Park wolf pack that recently relocated outside the park.
More precisely, it involves the legendary 12-year-old matriarch of the Mollie’s Pack, cataloged as 1090F.
The Cowboy State Daily reported Thursday that at least one hunter, from Nevada, intends to harvest the wolf. The report alluded to an Aug. 15 Facebook post by Kyri Ranch that reads, "The matriarch 1090F is going down."
An Aug. 20 post from the same page appears directed at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department: "The 1090F wolf is going down except if the department of fish and wildlife decides to move her back into the Yellowstone park which it will cause an outcry."
The post’s author stated that he’ll be in Wyoming during the first week of hunting season.
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The Mollie’s Pack, Yellowstone's oldest, can be traced to 1995, when wolves were reintroduced inside Yellowstone after a 70-year absence in the region.
Hunting is banned in Yellowstone, but its wolves are not protected if they venture outside the park during hunting seasons in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
The Mollie’s Pack, which presumably left the park in search of better prey opportunities, is currently within Wolf Hunt Area 1 in the Shoshone National Forest east of Yellowstone.
Activists have pushed for Wyoming and/or the Shoshone National Forest to cancel hunting in that zone, apparently to no avail.
The combined quota for Wolf Hunt Area 1 and Wolf Hunt Area 2 is four wolves. Once the quota is reached in either or both zones, they’ll be closed to hunting.
The Mollie’s Pack, originally dubbed the Crystal Creek Pack, was renamed in 2000 in honor of Mollie Beattie, who as director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service oversaw the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone.
Beattie died of brain cancer, at age 49, in 1996.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Iconic Yellowstone wolf, now outside the park, in hunter's crosshairs
