Just hours after U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists confirmed that one of 10 gray wolves transplanted to Colorado last December was found dead in Larimer County, the state’s top wildlife official told ranchers , he would not kill a wolf blamed for the deaths of four cows.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis said Tuesday that GPS points on the female wolf’s collar indicated she was likely in a den. In early April, GPS points stopped uploading, and they have recently started uploading again.
The biological explanation for this is that she was likely in the wolf den when the connection to the collar was broken, which coincides with the expected time of wolf reproduction, Davis wrote to Central Park after sending a letter to Gov. Jared Livestock Industry Association.
If the fragments were added up, these would be the first descendants of wolves reintroduced to Colorado. CPW is working to identify the nest.
In June 2021, a state biologist and a regional wildlife officer observed a litter of pups in Jackson County. These are the first documented gray wolf pups since the species became extinct in Colorado 80 years ago.
Their parents include a collared female wolf that migrated from the Snake River Pack in Wyoming in 2019 and a male wolf that Colorado wildlife officials equipped with a tracking collar in February 2021. The situation is the same for county wolves, where biologists observed in April that the female had retreated to a den.
When the first five wolves captured from Oregon’s pack were released in southwestern Grand County last December, Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists provided information on each animal’s age, sex and color. Details. The group includes two yearling females, which they say may be too young to breed.
A second group was secretly released days later on state land in Summit and Grand counties.
A total of six yearling females were released.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that the wolf found in Larimer County appeared to have died of natural causes, but a necropsy was underway to determine the cause of death. The agency did not reveal the sex of the animal.
Killing wolves is irresponsible management
In letters to cattle ranchers, Davis was determined not to kill the male wolf, one of two wolves that killed cattle in Grand County.
Killing male wolves contradicts the voter-led goal of reintroducing wolves. The state’s detailed plan indicates the species will be considered recovered when there are 25 packs of about 200 wolves in Colorado.
He wrote that removing male keepers at this time would be irresponsible management and could lead to nest failure and possibly even death of the presumed pups. This is not a desirable outcome, so I would not take action to fatally remove this animal at this time.
Grand County Commissioner Merritt Link declined to comment on the letter Tuesday night, saying he was still considering the matter. But earlier in the day, he and other commissioners sent a letter of their own to Governor Polis saying they were united with the Central Park Cattlemen’s Association in calling for the killing of the offending wolves.
Davis’ letter clarified another issue, namely livestock producers’ insistence that the reintroduced wolves come from wolves in Oregon.
He said that while the wolves selected for reintroduction may be from packs that historically preyed on wolves, management actions were taken in Oregon and the wolves were not captured in the months before being moved to Colorado. Engage in predatory behavior. Continuing to say we introduced known problem wolves into the state is a lie. Conflict can occur when wolves and livestock share land. We will strictly adhere to the recommendations of the technical working group and the regulations in our plan, and we will not bring wolves that are currently long-term predators into the state.
Davis acknowledged the challenges faced by Central Park cattle ranchers but said the agency will not kill any wolves in the near future. He cited provisions in the nearly 300-page Colorado Wolf Recovery and Management Plan that state CPW must evaluate the use of lethal control on a case-by-case basis.
Determining factors include ability to target predatory wolves, efficiency and effectiveness of conflict minimization, financial costs, wolf breeding and recruitment success, wolf population size and listing status, impact on livestock owners, and social/benefit considerations when lethal depredation options are considered stakeholder interests.
As with all wolf management practices, lethal control should only be implemented in compliance with all state and federal laws and regulations, he wrote.
The wolf recovery plan was developed at two-year meetings held across the state. The plan calls for phased management and can be adjusted as the state’s wolf population grows. During the recovery process, CPW also obtained designation as an experimental population under Section 10(j) of the federal Endangered Species Act to provide greater flexibility in managing wolves once they are reintroduced to Colorado, including killing predatory livestock wolf. Gray wolves are considered endangered in 44 states.
But Davis said Colorado’s wolf population is currently well below any recovery goals, and CPW has a legal obligation to establish a self-sustaining wolf pack while minimizing the risk of conflict.
He added that as Colorado’s wolf population grows and we move into different stages of management, the approach to lethal removal may become more liberal.
The Central Park Livestock Growers Association and the North Park Livestock Growers Association compared CPW’s wolf management practices to those of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in a letter earlier this week, Davis said in March 2023. Prior to joining CPW, he worked for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for 23 years.
Colorado’s plan does not include a definition of long-term depredation.
Davis said while other states have quantitative metrics that define chronic depredation, it’s important to understand that simply meeting that metric doesn’t necessarily trigger a lethal removal.
He added that an assessment of the environment, including an assessment of the condition of the entire wolf population, can inform decisions about wolf management. As you know, Colorado’s Wolf Recovery and Management Plan does not quantitatively define what constitutes long-term depredation. This is intentional and stems directly from the recommendations of the Stakeholder Advisory Group. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission will consider whether to recommend revising the plan to quantitatively define long-term depredation at a commission meeting this summer, and if so, what that definition should be.
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