How Wolves Became Yellowstone’s $82 Million Tourist Attraction

On January 11, 1995, approximately 17,000 elk bedded down in Yellowstone National Park. When they woke up a few hours later, a new scent was in the icy air: wolves. It had been 69 years since the last Canis lupus roamed the world’s first national park. As a result of hunting, government-sponsored eradication programs, and human expansion, wolves were all but extinct in the U.S. But on January 12, 1995, eight wolves from Canada were moved to Yellowstone in an effort to curb the exploding elk population that was destroying vegetation other animals needed to survive. It was a controversial move: area ranchers worried the new carnivores would prey on their livestock.

Thirty years after their reintroduction in Yellowstone, wolves have proven their ecological worth, at least in the context of restoring balance in the natural ecosystem. Today, the winter elk population in Yellowstone is fewer than 4,000—a number the park can sustain. But what what economic value do wolves provide to the park and the surrounding communities? That’s a much harder question to answer. From Montana to Inner Mongolia, there’s no question that wolf tourism, much like the gray wolf population, appears to be on the rise.

What Is Wolf Tourism?

Matthew A. Wilson, Departments of Sociology and Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes wolf tourists as “people who are willing to travel long distances just to be near wolves.” Historically, most wolf watchers were animal advocates, easily distinguished by their wolf-adorned license plates and bumper stickers. But today, more lay people are traveling thousands of miles—and paying top dollar—to see these apex predators up close.

“It’s very addictive, better than any drug.”

“In our first year, we had dozens of guests,” says Nathan Varley, founder of Yellowstone Wolf Tracker (YWT), based in Gardiner, Montana. Varley and his partner, Linda Thurston, were originally wildlife biologists, but in 2006 they saw a business opportunity and founded YWT, which offers half-day wolf-watching tours in the park starting at $950. Today, YWT employs around six locals who guide several thousand guests each year. “We were among the pioneers in the business,” recalls Varley. “Now it feels saturated.”

Offering a six-day winter wolf safari during mating season in January and February (from $7,150) in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, Jackson Hole Ecotour Adventures is one of Varley’s many competitors. “I love the adrenaline rush of being able to find wolves and show them to people; it’s very addictive, better than any drug,” says General Manager Tenley Thompson. Thomson, who says she’s guided in Yellowstone since its “wild west days,” is seeing a new demographic book their wolf-based tours. In years past, most guests with wolves on their bucket list came from the East Coast and abroad. But now there’s a substantial increase in bookings from day-trippers who are more local. “They tend to be hunters and anglers and come from cultural backgrounds where wolves weren’t always valued,” says Thomson.

Thomson credits time as the biggest factor in the shift in tourist demographics. When wolves were first reintroduced, she says she saw a lot of fearmongering, which she thinks is unwarranted. In terms of wolf attacks on livestock, she says “the reality of wolves is quite boring.”

In 2024, the Montana Department of Livestock received 48 wolf-related livestock and guard dog depredation claims for the calendar year. Thirty-two of the animals allegedly killed by wolves were cows. It seems like a lot, until you consider Montana is home to more than 2.2 million cows. For all 2024 livestock kills—by wolves, grizzlies, and mountain lions—the Montana Department of Livestock paid out $196,254 to reimburse ranchers. That seems like a lot, too. Until you consider how much the booming wolf tourism brings in. A 2021 study found that wolf tourism alone pumped at least $82.7 million into Yellowstone’s gateway communities like Gardiner, which has a population of just 744 year-round residents. That’s a 236 percent increase from 2006 when it brought in $35.35 million.

“Part of their annual trek is to always do a sleeping with wolves thing.”

Yellowstone—deemed “America’s Serengeti” because of its high population of ungulates and predators that hunt them—is one of the best places in the world to see wolves in the wild. “People fly in from around the world, literally, for this experience,” says Joanna E. Lambert, PhD, a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and science advisor to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project. But wolf tourism also includes sanctuaries, home to rescued wolves that would not survive in the wild. At Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, 30 miles west of Colorado Springs, visitors pay $20 to see wolves through a game fence. Interactive experiences, such as taking selfies with wolves, range from $120 to $600 per person.

Most sanctuaries forbid intimate encounters, citing that they can habituate wolves to humans, but the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center thinks they’re vital to the species’ survival. “To run your fingers through their fur and a possible quick moment of looking in their eyes to capture the depth of their spirit and soul is something that you will never forget. Hopefully, when you walk out of that enclosure, you will have a better understanding of that animal and be a voice to help protect its future forever,” reads their website. It also has this disclaimer: “Wolves love to steal.” For that reason, participants can’t wear jewelry, sunglasses, or even braids

“During the pandemic, when visiting Wild Wolf Valley in person wasn’t an option, cyber petting became popular.”

Although it doesn’t offer hands-on opportunities, the Sleeping With Wolves package at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York, has been selling out since it debuted ten years ago. CEO Leila Wetmore says this is the last year tourists have to rough it in tents ($340 per tent), and the final time it will be a summer-only event. “Over 2026 we’re going to be building some really cool yurt-containers,” she says. Because the center is just 55 miles north of Manhattan, Wetmore says it’s popular with international travelers. “I was just on the phone with somebody who’s coming from Germany. Part of their annual trek is to always do a sleeping with wolves thing.”

Wolf Tourism Over Seas

Technically, Europeans don’t have to cross the Atlantic to find wolves. They are making such a big comeback on the continent—the population nearly doubling in the past 20 years—that in December the EU voted to change their status from “strictly protected” to just “protected.” Spain, Romania, and Poland have been the first to capitalize on wolf tourism. Wild Moral’s Iberian Wolf Quest (all-inclusive from $345), in the Sierra de la Culebra mountain range near Spain’s border with Portugal, includes up to four “wolf waits” where tourists post up for a few hours in areas the animals are known to frequent. Visitors use high-powered telescopes, but like most wolf watching packages in the wild, sightings are not guaranteed.

At Romania’s Transylvania Wolf, the Wolf Tales and Trails tour focuses on the animal’s place in history. Wolf-human relationships date back to Roman mythology—a she-wolf suckled babies Romulus and Remus before the founded Rome. “Folklore around wolves in particular is very rich here,” says founder and guide Dan Marin. “That is an important part of the knowledge that our customers here receive while exploring truly wild areas in search of these animals.”

“They’re going to get shot, that’s a big issue, and you could construe that as a wolfwatching issue.”

While wolf tourism isn’t really a thing in Africa, South America, and Australia, it’s not unheard of in Asia. Four years before Americans were talking about the Netflix documentary Tiger King, a 71-year-old businessman in China earned the title “Wolf King” after spending $25 million building Wild Wolf Valley, where travelers could meet his 150-member pack. According to Trip.com, the attraction, located in Inner Mongolia, allows guests to hug wolves, feed them, and pose with pups. During the pandemic, when visiting in person wasn’t an option, cyber petting became popular.

How Tourism Affects Wolves

If anyone knows how wolf tourism has impacted wolves, it’s Doug Smith. He retired as a senior wildlife biologist in 2022 after working for 28 years in Yellowstone. He led the Yellowstone Wolf Project at the park and played a pivotal role in the reintroduction. Although he references two instances in the park’s history when rangers had to euthanize a wolf because it had become habituated to humans, he stresses that habituation (when wolves no longer fear humans) is very rare. “Those are wolves that walk up to you and when you put your pack down, they rip your pack apart, looking for food,” he says.

Instead, wolves’ diminished fear of humans is the problem. With 4.7 million visits in 2024, Yellowstone’s second busiest year in history, the park’s nine packs are becoming more tolerant to people. They don’t run up to humans the way a habituated wolf would, but they also don’t run away. “You transfer that behavior outside the park, and they’re dead,” says Smith. “They’re going to get shot, that’s a big issue, and you could construe that as a wolf-watching issue.”

In 2022, 25 wolves, or about 20 percent of the park’s population, were killed by hunters when they strayed outside park boundaries. According to Smith, many of these wolves were collared and had spent 95 percent of their time in Yellowstone.

Within the park, Smith says the increase in wolf tourism has mostly affected wolf behavior in two ways. First, they no longer den near the roads. Second, crowds often “bump them” off of  kills they would normally eat. That said, wolf tourism hasn’t noticeably impacted survival rates or reproduction. “That’s what we call fitness. It’s the gold standard for all wildlife,” Smith says. “And all of the people probably did not affect their fitness.”

“I’d love to see it go big, beyond Yellowstone.”

Still, tour operators are worried. “As more people get involved in wolf tourism and have a passion—whether that be photographers or visitors—it’s going to have an inevitable impact on these packs in a negative way,” says Thomson of Jackson Hole Ecotour Adventures. That’s why she goes out of her way to hire guides with research backgrounds. “They’ve gotten into this business because they care deeply about the animals, and so our ethics are a bit different. If we can’t see an animal ethically and safely, even if we’re well within the rules, we just don’t look at that animal.”

In Yellowstone, the rule is you have to stay at least 100 yards away from wolves. But there’s a big caveat: if you’re altering their natural behavior, even if you’re 250 yards away, that’s illegal. “If a wolf has to constantly get up from its nap and look around, or its ears are constantly twitching, we’re too close,” says Thomson.

The solution to the problems caused by wolf tourism, at least in Yellowstone, could be sharing the wealth. “I’d love to see it go big, beyond Yellowstone,” says Varley of YWT, who hopes to see wolf tourism spring up in other places, particularly Colorado and the West Coast. He’s also heard of new opportunities to view wolves in remote regions of Canada.

Lambert is a fan of spreading the trend, too, because wolf tourism typically results in an increase in funding for conservation. “Many people only know wolves through myths and misconceptions, experiencing them in the wild can foster a greater appreciation for their sociality and their significance in ecosystems,” she says. “On balance, wolf tourism is more beneficial than harmful. While I don’t like putting numbers on these ineffable effects, I would hazard to say perhaps ninety percent good, ten percent bad.”