“We love our wildlife here,” she said.

Wolf hunt

Yet Gaertner has no problem with wolves being legally hunted as outlined under Montana regulations. In her area that often means Yellowstone wolves are shot, animals that may have become less wary of humans because tourists visit Yellowstone by the millions each year.

Since Montana’s first wolf hunting season held in 2009, 37 wolves that spent the majority of their lives in Yellowstone were shot by hunters, Doug Smith, Yellowstone’s wolf biologist, told the Gazette in December. Eighty percent of the wolves killed were shot in two hunting districts outside the park’s boundaries in Montana.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Mike Phillips, D-Bozeman, is being drafted for this session of the Montana Legislature that would ban hunting and trapping of wolves next to Yellowstone in Park County. Another bill being drafted would allow wolf hunting at night. It is sponsored by Rep. Bob Brown, R-Thompson Falls.

Wolf lovers

Wolf hunting contrasts sharply with some park wolf watchers who are so dedicated that they have names for the more visible animals and track their life stories.