In late 2023, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials released five wolves on a remote chunk of state land in Grand County. Five more wolves were released in Summit County shortly thereafter. Two of those wolves have since mated, creating the Copper Creek Pack — Colorado’s first wolf pack in almost a century. But three have died, one from a mountain lion attack in April and two others this month.
The state’s resident wolf population now numbers 13: seven reintroduced adults, four pups and two adults from a pack that wandered in from Wyoming. How are they doing, and what can Colorado residents expect from the second year of reintroduction?
A controversial pack capture
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) announced on Sept. 9 that it had successfully captured the entire Copper Creek Pack, using foothold traps, in late August and early September. The pack, comprised of a male and female wolf and their four pups, was believed responsible for livestock deaths in the Middle Park area. The adult male was in “poor” condition, according to wildlife officials, underweight and with serious leg injuries and infections. CPW staff treated the animal with antibiotics, but it died three days later. The injuries appeared to stem from an attack by another carnivore, CPW Director Jeff Davis said at the Sept. 9 press conference, adding, “We believe that it was unlikely he would have survived very long in the wild.” The results of a necropsy, which is being performed by a third party, are expected within 45 to 60 days.
Capturing and relocating an entire wolf pack involved in depredations isn’t a common approach. Other states have only relocated “conflict wolves” when regulations limited other options, including lethal removal. Colorado’s reintroduction plan acknowledges that relocating conflict wolves has “little technical merit.” Relocation is timely and costly, and the wolves may return to the area or possibly attack livestock elsewhere.
But wildlife officials said that if they had only captured just the male earlier this spring or summer, when depredations were first reported, the pups would probably have died due to the loss of their food provider — an outcome at odds with the agency’s mandate to increase the wolf population. The decision to move forward with trapping and relocating came as the pups approached the age where they would start joining their parents on hunts — and potentially learn bad behavior from their father.
The pups will be held in captivity until this winter, when they will be old enough to hunt as a group and wear radio collars. In the meantime, they’ll eat roadkill carcasses and other meat, and will be kept away from humans as much as possible to prevent habituation. Though the pups won’t be able to hunt live animals in captivity, CPW officials said they expect them to learn quickly once they’re released. Officials were tight-lipped about the holding facility and gave no details about its location or size.
The adult female’s future is less clear; if she is re-released, officials said, she will be monitored carefully. In a Sept. 13 letter to CPW, Tim Ritschard, president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, asked CPW not to re-release the Copper Creek pack, or any other wolves, in the area. “From low deer and elk numbers already to multiple depredations on livestock, to no one being prepared for this, has us believe [reintroduction] has been a failure,” Ritschard wrote in an email to High Country News.
Despite the high-profile capture and eventual relocation, state officials said reintroduction is succeeding so far. “We feel very confident about the future of releasing additional wolves in the next couple of years,” Davis said. “Wolf restoration is inherently challenging and difficult, and we’re in year one,” added Eric Odell, CPW’s wolf conservation program manager.
Wildlife advocates from the nonprofit Western Watersheds Project said that CPW was doing a good job, given the circumstances. “I think this level of drama, for lack of a better word, is just sort of how it works when you have a big change with cultural, economic and resource implications,” said Delaney Rudy, Colorado director. “It’s pretty much going as well as we expected.”
Conway Farrell and Don Gittleson, the two ranchers who have endured the most depredations, disagree. They wrote a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regional officials in late August asking the federal government to take over wolf management from the state. “This situation is having a very big financial and emotional impact on the ranching community in both Grand and Jackson Counties,” they wrote.
Are ranchers using enough conflict prevention measures?
Wolves are responsible for around 1% of unwanted cattle deaths in other Rocky Mountain states. In Colorado, ranchers faced with chronic livestock depredations must try conflict prevention measures — such as using livestock guardian dogs, installing fladry (lines of waving flags that can spook wolves) or changing livestock feeding patterns — before they are permitted to kill any wolves. They also can’t lure wolves onto their property, either intentionally or unintentionally. In return, the state must pay “fair compensation” for any livestock losses caused by wolves. State funding is available for conflict reduction measures, and ranchers who employ them receive more compensation for depredations than those who don’t.
The state’s denial of a chronic depredation permit for the Copper Creek pack states that the rancher in question, who lost six yearling cattle and one sheep to wolves, had attractants on his land — including an open carcass pit — and did not adopt conflict reduction tools in a timely manner. The landowner also put off using a range rider to deter wolves by increasing the human presence on the landscape for almost a month, even as five depredations occurred. Depredations declined — two more occurred, compared to the five previously — once the carcass pit was buried and a range rider, funded by the Colorado Department of Agriculture, was hired.
Pitkin County Commissioner Francie Jacobsen, who comes from a ranching family and supports wolf reintroduction, was one of the 17 members of a state advisory group that served during reintroduction planning. She said she was surprised by the number of livestock deaths so far and suggested that many of them could have been avoided. “I haven’t seen a major shift in the ranching community,” Jacobsen said. Her family loses cows and sheep to bears and mountain lions, she said, and added that ranchers who choose to ranch where predators live should learn how to live with them. She credits a handful of level-headed ranchers with calming some community concerns around the newly arrived wolves. “I think that rancher by rancher is going to be the most powerful approach,” she said.
Another reintroduced wolf dies
Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced on Sept. 12 that a third reintroduced wolf had died, meaning that 30% of the animals released in the state are now dead. The wolf’s tracking collar sent a mortality signal on Sept. 9, and wildlife officials confirmed the death, which occurred in Grand County, on Sept. 10.
“While this is sad news, these types of restoration efforts consider anticipated mortalities in our planning and a degree of wolf mortality, just like for any wildlife, is expected both during restoration efforts and on an ongoing basis,” Davis said in a press release. No further information has been released, but the death is currently under investigation. Another reintroduced wolf died earlier this spring, but that appeared to be from natural causes, likely a mountain lion attack.
Troubles with supplying more wolves — until now
Colorado’s wolf reintroduction plan calls for the release of between 30 and 50 wolves over the next three to five years. The first 10 wolves were relocated from Oregon, but until last week, Colorado lacked a confirmed source for new animals. On Sept. 13, CPW announced that it will obtain up to 15 wolves from British Columbia this winter.
The agreement comes after other sources said no. In June, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation rescinded an offer to provide wolves over concerns that Colorado hadn’t adequately consulted with other tribes, especially the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, about the release. “Out of respect for the sovereignty, cultures and memberships of Indian Tribes in Colorado and neighboring states, who may be impacted by this project, the Colville Tribes cannot assist with this project at this time,” Jarred-Michael Erickson, chairman of the Colville business council, wrote in a letter.
The three Western states with the largest wolf populations — Idaho, Montana and Wyoming — have also refused to participate in wolf transfers.
What’s next?
Up to 15 wolves will be captured in Canada and relocated to Colorado between December 2024 and March 2025, then released in the northwestern part of the state in suitable habitat on state or private land.
While the release location is important, wolves move quickly, spreading out in search of food, mates and territory. Next February, more of the newly arrived wolves might pair up and breed, forming new packs. More wolves will likely mean more wolf-human interactions — and more opportunities for both state wildlife officials and ranchers to keep what happened to Middle Park’s livestock and the Copper Creek Pack from happening again.
This story is part of High Country News’ Conservation Beyond Boundaries project, which is supported by the BAND Foundation. hcn.org/cbb
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