A third wolf among the first 10 released under Colorado’s voter-approved wolf reintroduction plan has died, wildlife officials said Thursday.
The male gray wolf’s collar sent a “mortality signal” Monday and Colorado Parks and Wildlife was able to confirm Tuesday that the wolf died in Grand County, according to a news release the agency sent two days later.
“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,” CPW Director Jeff Davis said in the release.
The news comes just days after the state agency announced the adult male in the six-member Copper Creek died four days after wildlife biologists captured the pack, and that its death was caused by injuries to its hind leg that were not related to the trapping. The adult female and four pups are now in an undisclosed, temporary enclosure and being fed carnivore logs, carcasses from roadkill and other ungulates.
The first of the 10 relocated wolves to die was also a male, likely killed by a mountain lion, CPW said. It was found dead in Larimer County in April and had puncture wounds to its skull.
The Copper Creek pack was captured during the past two weeks after feeding on cattle and sheep in Grand County. CPW said the operation used foothold traps. The male adult had “deep puncture wounds” on its hind leg, and its weight was almost 30% lower than in December, when it was released weighing 104 pounds. It died despite receiving antibiotics for an infection, CPW said.
The agency did not say what caused the latest wolf death. The wolf’s collar sends a “mortality signal” when the animal has not moved for eight consecutive hours, CPW spokesman Travis Duncan said.
Meanwhile, wildlife biologists this week are investigating a report of additional livestock killed by wolves in Grand County – after the capture of the Copper Creek pack, which was feeding on cattle and sheep primarily on a single rancher’s land for months near Kremmling. In April, the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association sent the first of three letters to CPW asking for help protecting their livestock from the Copper Creek pack, which were denning on federal land near a ranch. But CPW denied a request to take lethal action.
“CPW has received a report of possible wolf depredation in Grand County,” Duncan said Thursday. “Local staff are conducting a field investigation.”
So far, wolves in Colorado have killed 28 cattle, 12 sheep and three dogs since December 2021, when wolves migrated naturally from Wyoming to northern Colorado, according to CPW’s wolf predation website.
The Center for Biological Diversity called on CPW to release the Copper Creek pack back into the wild as soon as the pups are big enough, in particular now that “only seven of the 10 wolves released in December” are still alive.
“It’s awful to hear that another one of Colorado’s reintroduced wolves has died,” said Alli Henderson, the center’s southern Rockies director. “Wolves face daily threats to their survival, and we need these wolves and additional wolves released into the wild to ensure that this historic effort continues to make progress.”
The first five wolves relocated to Colorado were released Dec. 18 north of Interstate 70 on state land in Grand County. Another five were released Dec. 23 in Grand and Summit counties, also north of I-70.
The state’s nearly 300-page reintroduction plan calls for the release of 30 to 50 wolves in total over three to five years. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said it aims to capture 10-15 wild wolves per year through trapping, darting or net gunning in the fall or winter, releasing them in Colorado from December-March.
Colorado voters narrowly passed the wolf reintroduction plan, called Proposition 114, in November 2020. The ballot measure passed mainly by urban voters directed state wildlife officials to begin reintroducing gray wolves by the end of 2023.
