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

It's been 12 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 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 Park upward into Park County, with experts estimating 1,200 animals living in the Yellowstone region. Although wolves in Montana and Yellowstone National Park are fully recovered, the animals are still listed under the Endangered Species Act.

In 1997, a Wyoming federal judge ruled the 1995 reintroduction of gray wolves to Yellowstone and central Idaho was illegal, but the 10th U.S. Circuit of Appeals overturned that ruling in 2000.

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.

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 private land. Montana and Idaho have had their wolf management plans accepted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and this spring it was announced wolves will be delisted in Montana and Idaho as soon as next year.

When delisted, wolves in Montana and Idaho will be managed by state agencies instead of the federal government.

Wyoming's plan has so far been rejected by the federal government because the circumstances under which the animals could be killed are not stringent enough. Killing a wolf in the greater Yellowstone region without a permit is a felony and carries up to a $100,000 fine and a year in jail.

Wolves, like any animal, are also 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.

Although ranchers and stock growers 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.

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

Wolf numbers have recovered, but the question of how they will be managed remains.

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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, American Indian 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, although long-term results are not available yet.

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.

In 2003, 231 bison were sent to slaughter from the Gardiner area. In 2004, about 270 were sent to slaughter.

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.

The park bison population is currently more than 3,800 - just above the management goal of 3,000.

The bison management plan will eventually allow for a number of bison to graze outside of Yellowstone once the vaccination program proves effective.

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

Many blame the 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.

In early spring 2006, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer proposed buying livestock leases that border the park to give bison more room to roam.

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

While few animals left the park during the 2007 winter, more than 500 were hazed back into the park near West Yellowstone at the end of April.

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