Yet, another study published that same year indicated that the legal hunting and trapping of even a few wolves right outside Yellowstone and Denali national parks’ boundaries dramatically reduced the odds of sighting a wolf within the parks. One explanation for this, according to the study’s authors, is that wolves that are less wary of humans and contribute disproportionately to viewing opportunities could also be more vulnerable to hunters and trappers when they step across the parks’ invisible boundaries.

The consequences of allowing even a small number of wolves to be killed in areas near Yellowstone could be devastating to the region’s reputation and the local economy. When a wolf known as “Spitfire” was killed by a hunter in one of these management units last November, it made international headlines, caused an “outpouring of grief, rage and anger,” and left some Yellowstone-area ecotourism guides worried that it would hurt their business. It can also disrupt valuable research like that being done by the Yellowstone Wolf Project, which has produced some of the most significant and detailed reports on wolf behavior in the world.