{
  "id": 19081,
  "title": "Yellowstone Is Among the World's Best Places to See Wild Wolves. Here's the Story of the Animal Called Both 'Public Enemy' and Cultural Icon",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/31/yellowstone-is-among-the-worlds-best-places-to-see-wild-wolves-heres",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-07-31T22:33:21.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/yellowstone-is-among-the-worlds-best-places-to-see-wild-wolves-heres-the-story-of-the-animal-simultaneously-dubbed-public-enemy-and-cultural-icon-180989194/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Yellowstone National Park is one of the world's top destinations for witnessing wild wolves, known for being both a cultural icon and a controversial figure. These canines live in family groups, hunting large mammals cooperatively. Historically, the wolf was widespread across North America but faced widespread persecution, leading to near-extinction in the lower 48 states by the early 1900s. Within Yellowstone, the park's superintendent in 1915 deemed wolves a threat to prey animals, and efforts to exterminate them ensued. This culminated in a systematic eradication program using poison, resulting in the last known wolves being killed in 1926. A century later, thanks to a reintroduction program that began in the 1990s, Yellowstone has become one of the best places in the United States to observe wild wolves, protected within its vast 2.2 million-acre domain.",
  "summary": "A century ago, resident wolves were eliminated from the park. In 1995, biologists brought them back, marking a historic reintroduction of a top carnivore",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}