Just days after Colorado Parks and Wildlife killed a yearling wolf pup caught preying on livestock in Pitkin County, the agency is reporting another wolf has died, this time in northwestern Colorado.
CPW said the wolf, a male wearing tracking collar 2507, was one of the 15 animals captured in British Columbia and released in Pitkin and Eagle counties in January. CPW received a mortality signal from the wolf’s collar May 31.
The agency says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the death and that it will not release further information. A final determination of the cause of death will not be made until the investigation is completed, including the necropsy.
This brings the total number of translocated wolves that have died since Colorado began reintroducing them in December 2023 to eight, including the wolf that agency officials shot and killed Thursday at a ranch in Pitkin County after it killed two calves and injured one over Memorial Day weekend.
That animal, identified by its tracking collar number 2405, was a member of the first pack to establish following the first release of gray wolves in Colorado in late 2023. The Copper Creek pack, which included an adult male and female and five pups, was blamed for numerous sheep and cattle kills on two ranches in Grand County last year so the adults and four pups were captured in September 2024. One of the pups eluded capture.
The adult male of the Copper Creek pack died shortly after it arrived at a sanctuary where the rest of the animals were held until they were re-released in January. Officials said the cause was a gunshot wound and offered a reward for the illegal killing.
A necropsy report in September showed another wolf from Oregon released in 2023 had also been illegally shot, though its death was attributed to a fight with a mountain lion. The USDA’s Wildlife Services on March 16 legally shot and killed a male wolf released in Colorado from British Columbia after it traveled into north-central Wyoming and killed five adult sheep. A second wolf from British Columbia was found dead in Wyoming on April 9; no necropsy report has been released. On April 20, a female wolf was reported dead in Rocky Mountain National Park – necropsy report outstanding. And on May 15, CPW reported a female wolf from British Columbia had died in northwestern Colorado. That wolf’s death is also still under investigation.
CPW said it continues to monitor four potential wolf dens and that a number of new pups born this year are likely on the landscape. The agency is developing plans for the coming year’s translocation efforts, it says, “so Colorado’s wolf population will continue to grow, leading toward a self-sustaining population.” And Colorado’s gray wolves continue to move into new watersheds, including those west of major population centers like Denver, Boulder and Estes Park, says CPW.
