Wolf 1470F<\/a>, was legally killed in September by a Montana hunter.<\/p>\nOver the years, several members of the pack have been shot by hunters in Montana, said wildlife photographer Deby Dixon, who has followed the pack for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems disrespectful to the wolves that this pack keeps getting killed,\u201d she told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
With 1478F gone, the pack has 15 members,\u00a0Dixon said,\u00a0including two\u00a0adults\u00a0that are\u00a0gray\u00a0in color and \u201c13 black wolves, including six pups,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Regarding 1478F\u2019s status in the pack, Dixon said she might have been having trouble getting along with the pack\u2019s alpha female.<\/p>\n
So, she might have wandering off and likely crossed the park border into Montana alone, Dixon said.<\/p>\n
Wolves of the Rockies spokesman Marc Cooke told Cowboy State Daily that 1478F might have been jockeying for higher status.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy understanding is, she was a rising star\u00a0within\u00a0the pack, and she was moving toward a leadership position within the pack,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Non-Hunting Community Just Gets Angrier\u2019<\/p>\n
Cooke said his organization isn\u2019t against \u201cthe fair-chase ethical hunting of ungulates (big game animals),\u201d but finds wolf hunting troublesome.<\/p>\n
As he sees it, every time a member of the Junction Butte pack gets picked off, it chips away at hunters\u2019 reputations.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time a wolf is killed, the non-hunting community just gets angrier,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, wolves are a huge draw for park visitors, so they\u2019re vital to Yellowstone\u2019s tourism economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re killing the goose that laid the golden egg,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wolves of the Rockies also contends that Montana\u2019s official wolf population estimate, about 1,100, is exaggerated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might have about 600 wolves, but we\u2019re hunting them like we have 1,100,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Montana\u2019s elk population is thriving, estimated at 157,300, he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Wolf](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Wolf-killed-by-poacher-woof-3-1.16.26.jpg\")
Wolf 1478F was the latest member of Yellowstone National Park\u2019s famed Junction Butte pack to be killed. She\u2019s thought to have been illegally poached in Montana. (Courtesy Sylvia Borgonovo Photography)Wolves Should Be \u2018Huntable\u2019<\/p>\n
Backcountry guide Kipp Saile of Pray, Montana told Cowboy State Daily that as he sees it, if Yellowstone\u2019s elk and other ungulates can be hunted as soon\u00a0as\u00a0they leave the park, wolves should be hunted too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why the wolf is so special that it can\u2019t be hunted, because every other species out there can be hunted,\u201d said Saile, who runs Rockin\u2019\u00a0HK Outfitters with his wife Heidi.<\/p>\n
They guide backcountry treks in Yellowstone during the summer, and hunting trips outside the park in the fall.<\/p>\n
Saile said he buys Montana wolf tags and hunts wolves. He doesn\u2019t think hunting threatens the overall wolf population.<\/p>\n
\u201cHunting is a great way to keep their numbers managed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that he thinks the anti-wolf hunting movement has a \u201chint of anti-gun people,\u201d because allowing wolves to kill enough big game animals could be used as a reason to argue that people no longer need to hunt, or own firearms.<\/p>\n
While some have strong sentiments about wolves, Saile said he has an equally strong sentiment about elk, and other animals that wolves prey upon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWere you out here, pre-wolf, like I was?\u201d he said, noting that he used to see many more elk and moose in Yellowstone\u2019s backcountry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve watched the ass end of an elk get eaten by a wolf while the elk was still alive,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Even so, he said he doesn\u2019t hate wolves or want them eliminated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoy seeing wolves in the park and I love hearing them howl. It\u2019s a great experience, but by no means does that mean I shouldn\u2019t hunt them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another female member of Yellowstone National Park\u2019s popular Junction Butte Pack has been killed. This time, Montana game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-418171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Wolf](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Wolf-killed-by-poacher-woof-1-1.16.26.jpg\")
Wolf 1478F was the latest member of Yellowstone National Park\u2019s famed Junction Butte pack to be killed. She\u2019s thought to have been illegally poached in Montana. (Courtesy Sylvia Borgonovo Photography)Pack Loses Prominent Females<\/p>\n