Colorado’s first introduced wolf pack has three confirmed puppies with at least one weighing in the 30- to 40-pound range.
The news comes after Mike Usalavage posted a video on social media Aug. 17 of the lanky pups playing in a rain puddle and wrestling on a dirt road in an undisclosed location. A few minutes into the video, Usalavage’s passenger says he spots the mother, which CPW confirms was with them.
Two small dogs sitting inside the vehicle begin to whine and bark as they watch the gray-and-white pups splashing in the water. But the wolves appear completely unaware of the vehicle and its passengers or at least unbothered by it.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife shared the video on Instagram at around 2 p.m. Monday, writing that their wolf biologists had reviewed and confirmed its validity. They also took the opportunity to educate viewers about the pups’ activity, writing:
“You can see the wolf pups deeply focused on playing with each other. Playing not only allows a wolf pup to practice hunting behaviors but also teaches them to communicate effectively with other wolves, which is a skill they will use throughout their lives as social creatures living in packs.”
In a second video posted by Usalavage Monday afternoon an adult wolf is clearly interacting with the pups.
CPW first confirmed a single pup had been born to Colorado’s first introduced wolf pack back in June, saying then it was likely as many as five pups had been born.
They surmised this based on location-tracking data that showed a female’s collar had stopped uploading GPS coordinates, but then resumed sending data later in the month. The agency said it would continue to observe the denning area to see if there were more pups. But today’s video is the first known confirmation of additional ones.
With the video of the pups chasing each other from shade to sunlight in what looks to be an aspen grove straddling the road, CPW reminded viewers that if you live or recreate in the foothills or mountains of Colorado, you are in wolf country.
“Wolves are wild animals and should be treated with respect just like any other wild animal,” they said. And they encouraged anyone who believes they have seen a wolf to complete the Wolf Sighting Form, as the information will help their biologists monitor wolves and their movement in Colorado.
Each month, the agency issues an updated map showing the reintroduced wolves’ latest range based on GPS collar data collected from all collared wolves in Colorado. The most recent one, released July 23, shows them ranging across approximately one-third of the state, primarily through the center.
Despite repeated requests for Usalavage to reveal the location of the sighting, as of 5:30 p.m. Monday on CPW’s Instagram account he hadn’t, as a debate among the 257 commenters showed the divide between wolf lovers and wolf haters.
Wolves were introduced in Colorado in December west of the Continental Divide, after Colorado voters narrowly passed Proposition 114 in November 2020, directing state wildlife officials to begin reintroducing them by the end of 2023.
When a pair of the 10 wolves released on state land reproduced, that family group was considered a pack which state wildlife officials named the Copper Creek pack. One of the transplanted wolves, a yearling female, was killed in Larimer County, likely by a mountain lion. These are the first births of grey wolves since the animals were reintroduced at the direction of Colorado voters. At least three pups were born in Jackson County in spring of 2021 to a pair of wolves that migrated naturally into Colorado from Wyoming. That litter was the first in Colorado since the species was extirpated 80 years before.
