“Avintaquint is dead! May he never have a successor,” Utah’s Duchesne Record proclaimed in September 1910. “The crafty leader of one of the wiliest bands of pillagers of the cattle range that ever roamed the west” had finally met his end. Avintaquint was not a human outlaw, but a canine one — a giant gray wolf that gained notoriety by feasting on sheep and cattle throughout eastern Utah, stubbornly eluding traps, bullets and poisons for well over a decade.
Accounts like this were not uncommon at the time: As wolf populations declined, reporters started focusing on individual animals, christening them and giving them celebrity status. The “pure white” Lady Snowdrift haunted Montana stockmen until a hunter shot her in 1923; the Great White Wolf of Sycan Marsh roamed southern Oregon; and in 1923, a hunter finally trapped Old Three Toes in southern Colorado. The wolf was notorious not just for preying on livestock, but for seducing domesticated ranch dogs, her only dating option since most of Colorado’s male wolves had already been slaughtered.
Old Three Toes was among the last wolves in the state, and within the next couple of decades, “Uncle Sam’s War on Varmints,” as one headline called the U.S. Biological Survey’s methodical massacre of predators, had eradicated wolves from most of the West. With the exception of occasional visitors from Mexico and Canada, the region remained mostly wolf-less until the animals received Endangered Species Act protection in the 1970s. Over the ensuing decades, wolves began to return, migrating by themselves or with the help of reintroduction efforts. There are now healthy populations in the Northern Rockies — where the wolf is no longer listed as endangered — and smaller, more tenuous pockets in other Western states.
As wolf populations declined, reporters started focusing on individual animals, christening them and giving them celebrity status.
Now ranchers, hunters and right-wing politicians are reviving the war-cries of a century ago, once again raging at wolves, accusing them of threatening pets, livestock, wildlife and even oil and gas drilling. Wolf hunting is back in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and lawmakers in other states are trying to rescind federal protections for the animals.
WASHINGTON
Thirty-seven wolves died in Washington in 2024, including four killed for preying on livestock, one by a cougar, one dying after ingesting a piece of plastic that perforated its intestine and 18 harvested by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
$1.65 million: Amount spent on wolf-management activities in 2024, including about $400,000 for livestock-related activities.
OREGON
$789,565: Amount awarded in 2024 to livestock operators for confirmed kills, missing livestock, prevention and administration.
NEVADA
No established population but sporadic sightings.
CALIFORNIA
The 2021 Dixie Fire burned significant portions of the Lassen Pack’s summer range, but the breeding wolves and five pups survived the fire.
MONTANA
This spring, Montana lawmakers killed a bill that would have mandated an unlimited wolf-hunting season throughout the state.
$285,282: Revenue generated from selling 17,735 wolf-hunting licenses for the 2023-2024 season.
WYOMING
124: Estimated number of wolves in Yellowstone National Park in 2023, where hunting is not allowed.
This March, a wolf that had been re-introduced in Colorado wandered into Wyoming’s “predatory animal area” and allegedly attacked five sheep. Federal Wildlife Services agents then killed the wolf.
UTAH
Utah lawmakers have called on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist wolves throughout the state, to no avail, and have tried to keep wolves from wandering from the northeast into the rest of the state, where they have federal protections.
ARIZONA
In April, federal hunters killed a pregnant female of the Bear Canyon pack after mistaking her for another wolf that allegedly preyed on livestock. Local schoolchildren had named the 7-year-old wolf Asiza.
COLORADO*
Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced the “Pet and Livestock Protection Act,” which would revoke Endangered Species Act protections for wolves nationwide. Boebert claims they not only imperil cattle and chihuahuas, but also — somehow — the oil and gas industry.
Lauren Boebert introduced the “Pet and Livestock Protection Act,” which would revoke Endangered Species Act protections for wolves nationwide.
NEW MEXICO
Following the lead of some Northern California and southern Oregon communities, Catron County declared a “wolf state of emergency” and asked the governor to send the National Guard to defend pets and livestock from what commissioners called increasingly brazen wolves.
A Mexican gray wolf was spotted north of Interstate 40 near Grants, New Mexico, suggesting the species was making its way toward Colorado and Utah. But Ella, as schoolkids named her, was found dead at the end of March.
Alaska is an outlier. The state’s 2024 wolf population was between 7,700-11,000. On average, 1,200 wolves are harvested annually.
*Colorado range data is at the watershed-level.
**Depredations include confirmed incidents in which wolves kill or injure livestock and/or guard dogs.
Illustrations by Alex Boersma/High Country News
Map & graph by Luna Anna Archey/High Country News
SOURCES: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Arizona Game and Fish, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, New Mexico Game and Fish, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, American Kennel Club.
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This article appeared in the June 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Wolves return to the West.”
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