Yellowstone National Park Hazes Wolves That Get Used to People

JACKSON (AP) — Yellowstone National Park is using paintballs, rubber bullets and flying beanbags to haze wolves that have become too comfortable around people.

Biologist Doug Smith got permission from park rangers to use the non-lethal projectiles when members of the Wapiti Pack began travelling along roads and getting close to tourists on snowmobiles.

Park workers were instructed to fire on the wolves only during “teachable moments,” when they’d associate the pain with their nearness to humankind.

The hazing worked on one wolf that had become so used to people that it took a photographer's tripod in November 2019.