Why do wolves howl? The Yellowstone Gateway Museum invites the public to explore that question through The Secret Language of Wolves, a major new exhibit that brings together science, local innovation, and extraordinary art to reveal how humans are learning to listen to the wild.
At the center of the exhibition is Dr. Jeffrey Reed, a Paradise Valley native and founder of Grizzly Systems, whose use of artificial intelligence has led to the largest study of wild wolf communication ever conducted anywhere in the world. Through small recording devices known as GrizCams, Yellowstone National Park’s Wolf Project researchers are capturing the soundscape of Yellowstone’s wilderness, decoding how wolves, elk, birds, and other animals communicate across vast distances and shifting seasons.
An immersive sound theater
Visitors will have the rare chance to step inside an immersive 3D sound theater, where Dr. Reed’s recordings surround them in the living acoustics of Yellowstone.
This multisensory experience places listeners at the center of a world without human noise: a moment to hear the forest, valleys, and mountains as animals do. From the low rumble of a distant elk to the intricate harmonies of wolf howls echoing across the ecosystem, the sound environment reveals a landscape alive with communication.
Humans in conversation with other species
In collaboration with the Alpine Ecosystems Research Institute (AERI), Dr. Scott Dersam expands the story beyond wolves to explore how humans have always lived in conversation with other species, learning from animals and shaping the world together through observation, imitation, and shared survival.
Two wolves from 1926
Yellowstone’s own museum collection holds the last two wolves shot in the park, in 1926, during the government’s predator eradication program. They were mounted together for the park’s first museum at Mammoth Hot Springs, and later moved to the map room of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. Both are on loan from Yellowstone National Park to the Yellowstone Gateway Museum.
Art
George Bumann’s sculpture of 907F howling, in progress.
Complementing the scientific work is a display of art that brings the story full circle. The exhibition features powerful photography from Tom Murphy, capturing Yellowstone’s natural environment, and an in-progress clay maquette of Yellowstone’s famed wolf 907F by acclaimed sculptor George Bumann, offering a rare glimpse into an artist’s creative process as he captures one of the park’s most iconic animals.
Together, these voices (scientists, artists, and the wolves themselves) invite visitors into a multisensory experience that bridges art and science, past and future. Through interactive displays, immersive audio, and evocative visual storytelling, The Secret Language of Wolves reveals a world alive with sound, meaning, and connection.
Visit
The exhibit is on view now at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum in Livingston, Montana.
The Secret Language of Wolves opened with a reception on Sunday, December 1, 2025, at 5:30 PM at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum in Livingston, Montana. The event was free and open to the public.
Driving directions to the museum (Google Maps)