Here is the latest on the Wyoming wolves outside of Yellowstone Park.

The wolf packs are in their usual location, with a few minor exceptions, and it looks like a number of packs may form this year.

The Teton Pack has been in the news because about a week ago a 75 pound female pup was hit and killed near Moran Junction. It seems the pack was chasing an elk and she got hit by a vehicle (which, as usual, did not stop and report the incident).

Today this pack of now about 12 got its first GPS collar. It was put on a 110 pound male wolf. 

Most winters the Teton Pack spends a lot of time up the Gros Ventre River chasing elk on the 3 state feedgrounds as well as nearby elk "wintering out." They have done less of it this winter. The pack has spent more time in Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger-Teton National Forest, outside of the Gros Ventre.

The state is still feeding the elk a bit in the Gros Ventre, and a new wolf pair has moved into the area. The pair is gray female disperser from Yellowstone's Delta Pack (the Yellowstone Delta Pack) and a black, likely male, wolf.

The "controversial" Daniel Pack has not been chasing elk off the Sublette county feedgrounds lately. Of course, most of the elk left them anyway due to the mild winter. The USFWS turned down Wyoming Game and Fish's request to kill or move this most southerly Wyoming wolf pack.

There was recently a minor controversy when some folks saw eleven members of the Washakie Pack chasing some elk from the Spring Mountain herd near Dubois. Some ads and email suggested folks call Game and Fish and the governor to protest what the pack was doing. . . . if you can imagine the horror!

I have heard that some of the upset in the area is because Game and Fish recently reduced the number of elk permits after several years of liberal hunting. Of course that got blamed on the wolves. The truth, however, seems to be that Game and Fish had been pressured by locally powerful ranchers to reduce the size of the elk herd so their cattle would have more to eat if the elk had less. The Spring Mountain elk herd is very important because it is one of the few NW Wyoming elk herds that is not treated like livestock and fed during the winter. It is actually allowed to migrate. This controversy shows why Wyoming is wedded to feedgrounds -- folks are in the habit of kowtowing to ranchers.

Funny how there is always as group of "sportsmen" who are afraid to confront political power, so they blame it on wolves (or if there are no wolves, on some other scapegoat).

Currently, there are a number of lone wolves, pairs and new trios in western Wyoming that might form packs this  spring.

There are several wolves south of the Daniel Pack near LaBarge, Kemmerer, etc.  There are some new wolves near Pinedale, and new wolves in the upper Green River. There is more than one wolf in the South Pass area south of Lander, and a new wolf or two near Meeteetse. These will probably replace the now extinct Owl Creek Pack. Then, of course, there is famous former Druid 253M and two other wolves on or near the National Elk Refuge where the feds are still feeding elk.