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Just As Wyoming Wolf Season Begins, Famous Mollie’s Pack Returns To Yellowstone
The famous Mollie’s wolf pack is safe, for now, after returning to Yellowstone National Park just before the start of Wyoming’s hunting season Tuesday. But hunters are hopeful they will stray back out of the park before hunting season closes in December.
Just As Wyoming Wolf Season Begins, Famous Mollie’s Pack Returns To Yellowstone | Cowboy State Daily
September 15, 20267 min read
After a storm of controversy leading up to Tuesday’s opening of the Wyoming wolf hunting season, the famous pack at the center of it all, the Mollie’s, apparently is safely back in Yellowstone National Park.
That wasn’t perfectly timed intuition on their part. They’re just doing what wolves normally do this time of year: Moving around because their pups are old enough to do so, a prominent wolf biologist says.
“The transition goes from the den to moving around close to the den, then to a bigger area,” Robert Crabtree, founder, chief scientist and president of the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, told Cowboy State Daily. “Then they move to a rendezvous site.”
Even so, hunters are hopeful, and wolf advocates are fearful, that the Mollie’s will stray back out of the park sometime before the hunting season closes in December or the wolf kill quota is met in that area.
So, it’s still possible that members of the Mollie’s, including its 12-year-old matriarch, Wolf 1090F, could get shot. She’s thought to be the oldest living wolf in the Yellowstone area and the second-oldest ever in the park.
Wolf advocate Samantha Miller told Cowboy State Daily the Mollie’s should get special protection from hunters because of the pack’s scientific value and its value to the wolf tourism industry.
Wolves “don’t know the invisible boundaries of the park,” said Miller, the senior carnivore campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Outdoorsman Olin Machen of Cody took a different view.
“As far as the Mollie’s pack, my only thoughts are pretty simple: If they are out of the park boundary, they are fair game,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
Pups Old Enough To Move
The Mollie’s are the oldest pack in Yellowstone. They’re one of the park’s most visible and frequently photographed packs, which has earned them a worldwide fanbase.
The pack was established when wolves were restored into Yellowstone in 1995 and originally called the Crystal Creek Pack.
In 2000, the pack was renamed the Mollie’s in honor of the late Mollie Beattie, who accompanied the first wolves into the park as the first woman director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Controversy kicked off late last year, when the Mollie’s decided to raise pups outside of Yellowstone for the first time.
The pack denned on the Shoshone National Forest east of the park boundary. The site is also in the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Wolf Hunt Area 1.
For the 2026 wolf season, there is a four-wolf kill quota for hunt areas 1 and 2. That means that once a total of four wolves have been killed in either or both of those areas the hunt will shut down, regardless of how many hunters are left holding unfilled tags.
There was recent chatter that at least some of the Mollie’s had moved back into Yellowstone. It’s not unusual for packs to vacate den sites this time of year. A roughly 6-month-old pup is old enough to move with adults.
Biologist Doug Smith, who led the wolf program in Yellowstone National Park for nearly three decades, confirmed to Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that the Mollie’s had apparently re-entered Yellowstone, and the pups being old enough to move was probably the reason.
‘Territories Can Shift’
Crabtree explained that the Mollie’s are right on schedule for becoming highly mobile.
Most wolf packs include a breeding pair, and mating occurs in February. Pups are usually born in early April, he told Cowboy State Daily.
While the pubs are young, the pack’s life centers on the den, but that changes as the offspring grow.
The final stage is moving beyond the aforementioned rendezvous site “more across their entire territorial area,” Crabtree said.
That’s probably the stage the Mollie’s are in, he said.
The pack’s historical range is all inside the park. But that might have changed, Crabtree said.
“Territories shift,” and the primary driver is the availability of a prey base, such as elk, he said.
And it’s not just the sheer number of prey animals, he added. Prevailing snow conditions can also dictate where packs choose to live and hunt.
Wolves have a distinct advantage over prey in deep snow. Their large paws allow them to run across the surface if it’s crusted, whereas prey animals’ hooves punch through the snow.
“If wolves can sense that deer and elk are post-holing (sinking their legs into the snow), there’s going to be multiple kills that night,” he said.
Willing To Take Risks
As most packs would, the Mollie’s will probably hang tight together while the pups are still young enough to rely on adults to provide food, Crabtree said.
“The pack is going to be very cohesive until next spring and fall, until the pups are old enough to start dispersing,” he said.
Meanwhile, even if the Mollie’s become aware that hunters are after them in certain areas, they’ll go where the best food opportunities are, he said.
“Wolves are willing to risk getting shot by hunters to feed their rapidly growing pups,” Crabtree said.
‘There’s Still Wolves Around’
Cody-area sportsman Ed Epperson was out hunting pronghorn Tuesday when he took a call from Cowboy State Daily.
Despite missing the opening day of wolf season, he said he plans to try filling a wolf tag.
Even if the Mollie’s pack has cleared out, there will be an opportunity, he said.
“There are still wolves around. We’ve been hearing them,” he said.
Leading up to the hunting season, Austin, Texas-based wolf advocate Jonas Black and others put up a 10,000 reward for information leading to the identity of hunters who shot 1090F or other members of the Mollie’s.
They later withdrew the offer and took down social media posts referencing the reward.
Even so, the reward offer prompted some hunters, or at least those claiming to be hunters, to post vows on social media to kill 1090F.
Epperson thinks the reward offer backfired and essentially “put a bounty” on the Mollie’s.
If the Mollie’s move back into a hunt area, they could be easy for hunters to identify because they’ve been photographed so frequently.
He wryly noted that hunters determined to find Mollie’s wolves could buy posters of them “so they’d know which wolves to shoot.”
Machen said he’d also like to fill a wolf tag if he gets a chance.
“I am not planning on hunting wolves alone (specifically). I generally just always have a tag and am more opportunistic,” he said.
“You have to have horses to really get after them,” he added.
Pressuring Game And Fish
Wolf advocates have tried pressuring the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to make an exception for the Mollie’s, perhaps suspending hunting in Area 1.
The commission thus far has refused. Some commissioners previously told Cowboy State Daily they trust the recommendations of the Game and Fish department biologist and wildlife managers in setting the wolf hunting seasons and quotas.
Miller said advocates aren’t ready to give up. She and others plan to attend the commission’s next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 21-22 in Evanston.
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Western Nebraska hunters navigating changed landscapes after wildfire year
By Jackie Ourada 
, Managing editor Nebraska Public Media
Sept. 14, 2026, 1:02 p.m. · 4 min read
Western Nebraska hunters navigating changed landscapes after wildfire year | Nebraska Public Media
Nebraskans’ camouflage hunting attire isn’t blending into some of the state’s charred landscapes this fall.
It’s been nearly six months since two mammoth wildfires tore through the Panhandle and southwestern Nebraska. The Morrill Fire and Cottonwood Fire scorched more than 700,000 combined acres in mid-March. And it’s been even more recent that the South Fork Fire tore through 40,000 acres in northwestern Nebraska – at one point threatening Fort Robinson, Nebraska’s largest state park.
As hunters return to those fields this fall, they’re sifting through a variety of field conditions, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Hunter Baillie, the Northwest District supervisor for Game and Parks’ Wildlife Division, said the wildfire aftermath could impact deer harvest counts, but he expects numbers to remain the same overall for other animals like elk and pronghorn antelope.
“There’s probably a potential impact of harvest during the deer season on our public areas,” Baillie said. “There’s going to be deer – I imagine just not as many. Some folks may just not hunt some of those areas, also.”
September is also the time for mourning dove hunting and grouse hunting.
Rick Arnold, a Game and Parks wildlife biologist based near Crawford said parts of the burned South Fork Fire area vary considerably. Recent rainfall has created flash flooding through parts, while some of the most drought-stricken areas are still barren.
“We’re starting to green up pretty well on the Peterson Wildlife Management Area,” Arnold said. “Fort Rob is doing so-so, and then the north side of that burn is still pretty bare. I think we’re in a D4 (extreme) drought in the southwestern corner of Dawes County – just pretty miserable, honestly. Sioux County is really crispy. Has been since the South Fork Fire.”
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is warning hunters that do venture out to be cautious of the recovering landscape. Some trees may appear green and alive but are actually nearing mortality and could fall the next time a strong wind gust rips through.
“They look like they’re alive. They’re green on the top, but you go to the backside of the tree – where that wind swirled on the backside and burned half of that tree off – and it’s severely compromised. It’s just essentially green off its reserves, and eventually it’s going to die,” Arnold said.
There may also be deep holes created by fires in trees’ rootballs, creating craters of ash. And large sections of fencing that separated public and private lands still need to be reconstructed. Hunters will have to be mindful of not crossing into private land if they’re hunting through public areas.
Arnold predicts the overall public hunting area around Fort Robinson may not garner as much hunting interest this year compared to hunting on private lands, but monitoring by the Game and Parks employees shows animals are still in those areas, despite the charred grounds.
“I think it’s going to be pretty discouraging when folks show up and it’s a burned landscape. It’s not green, lush pine trees. There’s areas where it’s scorched earth. But you know, running trail cameras and checking water tanks – those deer, elk and turkeys… Everything’s moving and utilizing the burn area. Maybe just not at the densities they did,” Arnold said.
Other parts of Nebraska that were burned earlier this year are recovering fairly well six months later. Baillie was just out hunting on ground that was torched from the Morrill Fire in the Sandhills.
“It’s still not what everyone wants it to be for sure, but we hunted the Crescent Refuge, and we observed over 40 mule deer within that area,” Baillie said. “So it’s good to see wildlife using that area.”
The wildlife experts said all the burned areas may bring a better landscape for animals – and subsequently, for hunting – in just a few years.
“There’s potential for long-term impacts that are positive, especially when you’re talking wildlife,” Baillie said. “It modifies the plant communities. It changes the plant diversity, increases the amount of forage, the broadleaf plants, shrubs.”
Improvement will vary depending on the areas, Baillie and Arnold said. Some of the open grasslands are already seeing lush, green fields return. But some of the areas that had denser tree regrowth in the last several decades may take more time to recover. But the two expect a better hunting landscape if the late summer and early rains cooperate.
“We’ve been through this in 2006. We’ve been through it in 2012,” Arnold said. “We’ve had some banner fire years in the Pine Ridge and elsewhere, but some of that 2012 footprint [made] the best mule deer habitat we have. It’s created more open stands, more woody browse. The mule deer are more visibility-dependent, whereas whitetails are more of that close canopy, more of a forested landscape, if you will.”
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Avian flu found in commercial poultry flock in Barron County
(Cynthia Goldsmith, Jackie Katz/CDC via AP)
HEALTH
BY Rachel Ryan Wisconsin
PUBLISHED 12:46 PM ET Sep. 15, 2026
BARRON COUNTY, Wis. — Avian flu has been found on a commercial poultry farm in Barron County, according to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
There is a total of 79,088 birds on the farm, which is now being quarantined and depopulated.
It’s the first case of avian flu in a poultry flock in the state since March and the fifth this year. All the previous cases were found in southern Wisconsin.
Four of the five cases in 2026 were in commercial farms, two in Jefferson County, one in Walworth County, and now the new one in Barron County.
One of the five was found in a backyard flock in Dane County.
In Barron County alone, there have been 12 cases of avian flu since 2022. The 2026 case is the first since 2024.
The highly contagious sickness has been circulating in North America since Dec. 2021. It’s often fatal to domestic poultry and is caused by influenza type A viruses, according to DATCP.
It can be spread when coming in contact with an infected bird or “commingling with wild birds or their droppings, equipment or clothing worn by anyone working with the animals.”
Avian flu found in commercial poultry flock in Barron County
