ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the relationship of humans and wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It shows how the relationship reflects significant cultural shifts within the history of European-American occupation of the western United States. The chapter highlights the role that animal agency plays in the creation of the contemporary human–wolf relationship. The gray wolf is an indigenous species of North America whose range encompassed most of the continent prior to European colonization. Wolves are carnivores; as such they subsist on the flesh of other animals. Wolves in North America rely upon large ungulates as their primary prey. The Montana State Livestock Loss Board was created by the state of Montana and charged with investigating claims of wolf and grizzly bear depredation on livestock and reimbursing the owners at market value for all confirmed kills.
