Happy 30th Anniversary Yellowstone Wolves Clip @defendersofwildlife For nearly 70 years, Yellowstone had no wolves. By 1926, they had been systematically hunted, trapped, and poisoned until none remained. Without its top predator, elk numbers surged, forests failed to regenerate, riverbanks eroded, and the park’s natural balance began to unravel. In 1995, conservationists made a bold decision: to bring wolves home. Wild gray wolves were humanely captured in Canada by Canadian wildlife biologists