Wyoming wildlife managers plan to cut the number of wolves hunters can kill in 2026 by 50% to account for a canine distemper outbreak that has weakened the state’s wolf population, officials said Friday. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department proposed a 22-wolf mortality cap for licensed hunters, which the agency said would be the fewest wolves available for hunting since Wyoming resumed wolf hunting after Endangered Species Act protections were lifted in 2012.
The department linked the quota reduction to the disease’s impact on wolf numbers—an effect that, biologists said, has been especially severe for pups. Wyoming wildlife managers and federal biologists said distemper is the primary culprit in the decline, and the disease is especially deadly for puppies, which investigators detected during routine capture work last year.
In the agency’s latest count as of early 2026, Wyoming biologists tallied 253 wolves statewide and 14 breeding pairs. Officials said both figures represent decreases from the 330 wolves and 24 breeding pairs estimated at the end of 2024. The agency also said that distemper has contributed to the lowest overall population in two decades, after Yellowstone-area wolves had been rebuilding following their 1995-96 reintroduction.
As covered previously by MSI, officials said distemper has been reshaping the Yellowstone region’s wolf demographics, including reduced pup survival. MSI previously reported that a distemper outbreak drove Wyoming and Yellowstone wolf numbers to a 20-year low.
In addition to the statewide count, the department’s draft hunting plan focuses on a trophy game area in northwestern Wyoming where the state tries to maintain enough wolves to meet federal expectations after delisting. The agency said the population in that zone decreased 19% to 132 wolves in 2025, below the state’s 160-animal objective, and that the area fell to 10 breeding pairs in 2025—exactly the number called for in the delisting agreement when Wyoming gained jurisdiction over wolves 14 years ago.
Wyoming Game and Fish wolf biologist Ken Mills said the overall mortality limit for 2026 is intended to be lower by exactly half. “As far as the overall mortality limit, it’s exactly half,” Mills told WyoFile. Mills also said the hunt is designed to “grow the population by 28 wolves,” to support the state’s objective for the trophy game area.
Under the current approach, Wyoming’s wolf hunting quotas vary by region. Mills said wolf numbers in the Cody, Lander and Pinedale regions were relatively stable in 2025, while the largest reduction occurred in the Jackson region. As a result, the department proposed reducing the limit from 19 to six for wolves that can be killed across four conjoined hunt areas—units 8, 9, 10 and 11—covering terrain from Jackson Hole into the Green River basin.
The draft regulations also call for changing limits in the far north portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem hunting zone. In particular, the department proposed relaxing limits on wolves hunted along the west slope of the Tetons and in the Teton Wilderness—units 6 and 7—from five animals to no more than two.
Wyoming’s decision may also influence how other northern Rocky Mountain states manage hunting around Yellowstone National Park. The Associated Press reported that it remains unclear whether Montana and Idaho will adjust their wolf-hunting practices, as Wyoming’s distemper outbreak was described as regionwide and also hit Yellowstone packs. The agency said those packs produced 17 surviving pups, which it described as the lowest count in 30 years of monitoring.
The AP said Montana hunters and trappers can kill 15 wolves apiece, and that Montana uses a quota system near the Yellowstone boundary to reduce impacts on wolves that leave the park. Idaho, according to the report, allows largely unfettered wolf hunting on the western side of the ecosystem. Wyoming, the AP said, manages wolves similarly outside the Yellowstone-adjacent zones, where the species is classified as a “predator” in 85% of the state and where the department said wolves can be killed by almost any means without hunting limits being altered by the population decline.
The department said it will take public input on its 2026 wolf hunting proposals during a series of meetings in northwestern Wyoming. Those sessions are scheduled for 6 p.m. May 26 in Jackson, 6 p.m. May 28 in Cody, 6 p.m. June 2 in Pinedale, and 6 p.m. June 3 in Lander. The agency said comments can be submitted at WGFD.wyo.gov/get-involved/public-input through June 10, and that the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission is expected to review and approve the draft regulations at its July 14-15 meeting in Sheridan.
Mills said the public is likely to hear criticism from more than one direction. “There will be people frustrated that the mortality limit is lower,” he said, “and members of the public that probably think we shouldn’t hunt wolves at all.”