According to decades of research in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, wolves can eat upwards of 11,000 elk in a year, biologist Doug Smith told WyoFile in 2017. Over 2,100 of those were within the park boundary, while the other 9,000 were on the outskirts. Biologists estimate that 108 wolves, comprising 10 packs, lived in the park as of January 2023, according to a report from the National Park Service. Cassidy puts the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population at around 500 wolves, according to a post she wrote for the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative.