Two men are facing wildlife charges in Wyoming after a gray wolf was allegedly shot and killed months before hunting season even opened — and without a license to boot. The case, which unfolded near Cody in Park County, has drawn attention from wildlife officials and biologists who say the timing of the killing may have had serious consequences far beyond just breaking the law.
Noah Mick, of Cody and Carbondale, Colorado, and Cole A. Mick, of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, were both charged Friday in Park County Circuit Court. Noah Mick, born in 1999 according to statewide court records, faces the heavier end of the charges. He's accused of unlawfully killing a gray wolf without a license, taking the animal during a closed season, and giving a false statement during gray wolf registration. Cole Mick, born in 1995, was cited as an accessory to the unlawful taking of the wolf without a license. Court documents don't confirm whether the two men are related, though they share the same last name.
According to citations issued by Wyoming Game and Fish Game Warden Travis Crane, the wolf was killed on June 1, 2025. That's roughly three and a half months before the 2025 wolf hunting season in that area was scheduled to begin on September 15. The season runs through December 31. The wolf was taken in the Skull Creek and Pat O'Hara Creek area of Park County, which falls likely within wolf hunt area 6 — a designated trophy game hunting zone where wolves can legally be pursued, but only under the right conditions. A valid license, an open season, and compliance with bag limits are all required. In this case, authorities allege none of those boxes were checked.
Wyoming Game and Fish spokeswoman Amanda Fry confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that the agency cannot comment on ongoing court cases.
To understand why this case matters beyond the legal violations, it helps to understand how Wyoming manages wolves and how the animals live during the summer months.
Wolf management in the state operates on a patchwork system depending on geography. Inside Yellowstone National Park, wolves are under federal protection and cannot be hunted, full stop. Surrounding the park is a designated trophy game hunting zone, divided into several hunt areas. In those zones, wolves share their trophy game classification with mountain lions and black bears — a distinction that separates them from big game animals like deer and elk. One notable difference in that classification is that hunters are legally required to retrieve the edible portions of big game animals when killed. No such rule applies to trophy game animals, though some hunters do choose to keep and eat bear and mountain lion meat. Eating wolf meat is not a widespread practice in Wyoming, though some chefs in the state have apparently offered up recipe ideas when asked.
Outside the trophy game zone, which covers roughly 85 percent of Wyoming's land area, wolves are classified as predatory animals. In those areas, they can be killed at any time, without a license, and with no bag limit. The Skull Creek area is not one of those places. It sits in the trophy game zone, meaning the rules that govern deer and elk hunting — the need for a license and an open season — apply there for wolves as well.
The date of the alleged killing, June 1, is what raised the most serious concern from a wildlife perspective. Robert Crabtree, the founder, chief scientist, and president of the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, told Cowboy State Daily that shooting a wolf in early June can send shockwaves through an entire pack.
June is when wolf pups have just been weaned and are beginning to eat solid food. They're not mobile hunters at that stage. They stay close to the den and rely entirely on adult pack members to bring food back to them. As Crabtree put it, "In June, they've just weaned, and they're being fed solid food. And their growth rates are really high in June and July." Lose an adult wolf during that window, and the pups left behind become, in his words, "vulnerable to starvation." By August, pups that have made it that far may begin tagging along with adults to learn hunting, or even taking down small prey on their own — but getting to that point requires surviving those critical early summer weeks.
The implication is clear: an illegally killed wolf in early June isn't just a single animal lost. It can mean the collapse of the food pipeline for an entire litter of pups, with cascading effects on the long-term health and stability of the pack.
Wolf hunting in Wyoming is a topic that generates strong opinions on all sides. Supporters of hunting argue that managed harvest is a legitimate and necessary tool for controlling wolf populations and protecting livestock and game herds. Critics of wolf hunting push back on those arguments and favor keeping wolves protected. But even among hunters, the conduct alleged in this case — killing out of season, without a license, and apparently lying during the registration process — represents exactly the kind of behavior that undermines the credibility of lawful hunting and the management systems built around it.
Noah Mick and Cole Mick are each facing citations filed in Park County Circuit Court. The case is ongoing.
