By Spencer Conlin
BOZEMAN – This week the wolf hunting season opens, but a new organization is taking to the wilderness– hoping to stop this year’s hunt.
They are calling themselves the Yellowstone Wolf Patrol, and they are doing exactly that, monitoring hunters near Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone Wolf Patrol’s founder Rod Coronado said, “The primary reason is because these are biologically significant animals, they are the focus of research projects that are unique to the country on predator and prey relationships and we are just learning again what the roles are of wolves in an ecosystem.”
Nine members have taken to the Absaroka Wilderness to find trail hunters hunting wolves.
“We have located these advertised wolf hunters, and where they are camped, and we are just keeping an eye on them,” Coronado said.
The group will watch for any violations and will report them to the authorities.
Coronado said, “There are laws that have been passed in Montana that allow private landowners and rancher to kill up to 100 wolves a year, so there is no need to sacrifice the lives of anymore wolves in the Yellowstone ecosystem.”
The FWP is well aware of the Yellowstone wolf patrol and say they are not doing anything wrong.
FWP Warden Captain Samuel Sheppard said, “Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have no issue with anyone monitoring a hunt.”
There is the concern of the group harassing the hunters that could cost them anywhere from $25 to $2,000.
“Activities that would artificially manipulate game, in this case, wolves away from hunters, getting between hunters and wolves, those types of things,” Sheppard said.
The group says it know the boundaries and just wants to get one message across.
Coronado said, “Remind folks that it is just not about joining an organization that is opposed to wolf hunting. We have to except some social responsibility and ecological responsibility.”