The howl of the gray wolf has been heard in Yellowstone National Park for more than a decade now.

It’s been 15 years since Yellowstone National Park’s wolf reintroduction effort began in 1995, and Montana’s lead wolf recovery official has said the program’s goals have been accomplished.

Wolves were eradicated from Yellowstone in the early 1900s.

“Biologically, wolves are doing great,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wolf Recovery Coordinator Ed Bangs.

The wolf was removed from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho in May 2009. The wolf remains on the list in Wyoming.

That decision resulted in a lawsuit by several organizations that opposed the delisting.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy will hear arguments for the suit in June, 2010.

The minimum recovery goal for wolves in the northern Rockies was 30 breeding pairs and at least 300 wolves for three consecutive years — a goal that was attained in 2002 and has been exceeded every year since.

Gray wolves now extend from the southern reaches of Yellowstone National Park upward into Park County, with experts estimating 1,500 animals living in the Yellowstone region.

With wolves now under state management in Montana and Idaho, some environmental groups fear hunting and trapping could damage the animals’ recovery. Twelve conservation groups have sued over wolf delisting.

Wolves generally prey on elk, young bison and other animals throughout the park. However, since wolf reintroduction, area ranchers have lost cattle and other livestock, and some pets have fallen victim to wolf attacks as well.

According to new management rules, if a wolf is actively chasing, harassing or attacking livestock or pets, it can be shot on sight.

This is in stark contrast to the lengthy federal process of obtaining a kill permit under the old regulations. Killing a wolf in the greater Yellowstone region without a permit was a felony and carried penalties of up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine.

Wolves have set up dens through Yellowstone’s 2.2 million acres. They also roam on neighboring U.S. Forest Service lands outside of the park as well as on private land.

Wolves, like any animal, are subject to disease. In the summer of 2005, about 40 percent of the northern Yellowstone Park-area wolf population died from a virus originally contracted from dogs.

The popular Druid Pack was one of the most dominant wolf packs in Yellowstone after the reintroduction. Wolves in the Druid Pack became infected with disease, causing the pack to die out.

Although ranchers and stockgrowers might not be happy with the return of the gray wolf, environmentalists and tourism-based businesses are pleased.

Merchants have cashed in on T-shirts, books, videos and other items relating to wolves.

The first-ever wolf hunt took place in the fall of 2009.

The hunting area north of Gardiner was the first to fill the kill limit among several counties where the hunt was allowed near Yellowstone Park.

Janelle Holden of Keystone Alliance, a predator conservation group that advocates nonlethal wolf mitigation techniques, said in a recent study that having wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem brings $35 million annually to the area.

Motel managers have reported they experience a surge in spring visitors who hope to see a wolf in Yellowstone Park.

Wolves often den in the same spot year after year, Bangs said. Some wolves in other areas have been known to use the same rock den for decades, passing it down through generations.

“Probably the number one place in the world to see wolves is in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park,” Bangs said. “It’s phenomenal.”

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The beautiful Yellowstone landscape is also wild country — one of the last and largest undeveloped regions in the continental United States. Black bears and grizzly bears roam through the countryside they claim as their own.

Both black and grizzly bears are frequently encountered in and around Yellowstone National Park, and both species are unpredictable.

Upward of 610 grizzlies live in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

Grizzlies are protected by components of the Federal Endangered Species Act, but their long-term protections under that act remain in litigation.

Since it can be difficult to tell grizzly and black bears apart, hikers are best advised to be wary of all bruins.

As a rule, black bears are generally smaller, less aggressive animals, and most have black or dark brown hair. However, some black bears grow to be quite large, and it is not uncommon to see cinnamon-colored black bears that closely resemble a grizzly.

Adult grizzlies are quite large, with lighter-colored hair usually highlighted by silver tips, giving a distinctive sheen.

The only true distinction between the two species is their body shape, the shape of their muzzles and their claws. Grizzlies have a hump above their front shoulders, making it the highest point in their body. On black bears, the highest point is the rump. In a profile, the grizzly’s face has a distinctive brow that gives the bear a dish-shaped muzzle.

The black bear has a straight muzzle and the face appears round when viewed from the front.

The grizzly bear has much larger claws than black bears. Grizzly claws are several inches long, and when the bear leaves a footprint, the claw impressions are about 2 to 3 inches in front of the pads.

Research shows there are fewer bear attacks when people travel in groups. Grizzly bear experts and park rangers recommend hiking in groups rather than walking alone.

Hiking during the daylight hours and making noise — such as singing or whistling — when approaching “blind curves” is another way to reduce encounters.

Special care should be taken when camping in bear country. All cooking should be done well away from the sleeping area and all food should be hung at least 10 feet up in trees away from the sleeping area, as should clothes worn while cooking and eating.

Fish entrails should be thrown back into the water, and garbage should be burned in the campfire or hung in a tree well away from the campsite.

Since food and odors attract bears, items such as cooking stoves, utensils, coolers, trash bags, food and toiletries should not be left outside or in tents or tent trailers, unless they are in immediate use.

If you encounter a bear:

• Stay calm. It will probably leave you alone.
• Do not make abrupt moves or noises that would startle the bear.
• Give the bear plenty of room.
• Assume a non-threatening posture and turn sideways.
• Avoid eye contact.
• Slowly back away.
• Keep your pack on to provide protection.

If a bear charges:

• As a last resort, drop to the ground and assume a cannonball position to protect head and stomach while playing dead.
• Don't move until you are certain the bear has left the area.

REMEMBER

Running is likely to provoke an attack. Grizzlies can attain short bursts of speed of up to 40 mph.

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The woolly bison is a symbol for the Old West and its rugged spirit. Now, the bison is also a sign of the struggle for the future of the New West.

Ranchers, conservation groups, Native American tribes, and state and federal government agencies are tangled in a debate over what to do with bison wandering out of Yellowstone National Park during winter months.

The animals leave the high elevations of the park during harsh winters to search for winter forage.

At the heart of the problem is the bacterial disease brucellosis carried by some bison. The disease can cause domestic cattle to abort. In the summer, cattle graze on the same land bison use outside the park in the winter.

Although there has never been a documented case of cattle getting brucellosis from wild bison, the possibility of transmission concerns Montana’s ranching industry.

It cost ranchers millions of dollars over several decades to eliminate the disease from cattle and obtain a federal brucellosis-free designation.

Experimental vaccination programs for bison calves and yearlings were implemented in 2004 and 2005, but long-term results are not yet available.

Federal and state agencies slaughtered more than 1,000 bison during the winter of 1996-97 as a part of an interim bison management plan to prevent bison from intermingling with cattle outside of Yellowstone.

Since then, bison have been hazed, captured and slaughtered to keep them off grazing land outside the park.

The winter of 2006 was cool and snowy, forcing many bison to migrate out of the park, where 839 were captured and sent to slaughter.

Yellowstone Park officials counted around 3,000 in the spring 2010, an increase from 2009.

The bison management plan will eventually allow for a number of bison to graze outside of Yellowstone on easements to land recently secured by the federal government.

Critics of the plan believe Yellowstone bison should be allowed to graze freely on any public land.

Many others blame the National Park Service’s hands-off management policy for allowing the herd to grow too large for the amount of winter forage available inside park boundaries.

A limited hunting season outside the park was begun in 2006-07.

Under the controversial management plan, more than 1,800 bison have been captured and sent to slaughter over the years.

In February 2010, 87 bison were moved from the quarantined area in Paradise Valley to Ted Turner's Flying D ranch southwest of Bozeman.

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