DENVER ( KDVR ) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife said Monday that it has successfully captured all six wolves from the Copper Creek pack after announcing it would relocate the pack due to livestock depredations , but one of the wolves has died from unrelated injuries.
The wolves were taken to a “large, secure enclosure with limited human interaction” following their capture. According to CPW, the adult female was captured on Aug. 24 and reported to be in good body condition and was transported with no issues.
Divided response after Copper Creek wolf pack relocation The adult male was captured next on Aug. 30, but was reported to be in poor condition, “with several injuries to his right hind leg, unrelated to the capture.” CPW said the wolf’s body weight was also almost 30% below what he weighed when released in December. The agency said staff members administered antibiotics to address the infections, but four days after he was transported, the wolf’s collar transmitted a mortality signal.
Biologists confirmed the wolf died on Tuesday, Sept. 3, and said they did not believe the wolf would have survived for long in the wild, either. As wolves are federally protected, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct a full necropsy.
Four pups were captured in a three-day process, with capture operations concluding on Sunday. The pups were found to be underweight, but otherwise healthy. Additional survey work was conducted to ensure all of the pups had been captured.
Erin Karney-Spaur, the executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen Association, said the news of the wolves’ capture is good.
“When we first got the release that they were capturing the wolves, I think form the livestock community’s standpoint, we are all very happy that those wolves are being captured and taken off the landscape so we can no longer have livestock depredation from that specific pack anymore,” Karney-Spaur said.
CPW also said the pups are still mainly dependent on their parents for food and have deciduous teeth (baby teeth), and the pups are not effective hunters for animals larger than rabbits or squirrels.
“There is no evidence that the four pups were involved in any of the livestock depredation incidents in Grand County,” CPW said in its announcement of the pack’s capture.
The agency will monitor the female wolf and all of the pups and is moving forward with plans to re-release them. CPW has not offered details on where the pack could be re-released but said the pups will be adult-sized and able to hunt on their own or in a pack.
CPW report details capture and release, first few months of wolf reintroduction program “This approach gives CPW the opportunity to release them into the wild together so they can contribute to wolf restoration in Colorado. CPW will have conversations with local elected officials and landowners in possible release areas before a release occurs,” the agency stated.
Karney-Spaur is concerned this could set the state’s precedent for what happens in the future. She said lethally removing wolves that are bad actors would be the best action.
“We just want to make sure that it’s written into the wolf plan,” she said, “And kind of agreed upon by all of the citizens in Colorado that if there is counted conflict with livestock that we have to accept there is going to be lethal take of wolves who are bad actors and I think we have to just ensure that’s going to happen and this doesn’t set a precedent into the future.”
Where will the captured wolves be relocated?
The Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan orders CPW to not relocate wolves with depredation histories within Colorado.
“The plan also calls for flexibility and it may not at times account for every unique situation the agency and our experts encounter,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis in the announcement. “This spring, after a pair of wolves established a den in Middle Park, the male adult wolf was involved in multiple depredations. Removing the male at that time, while he was the sole source of food and the female was denning, would likely have been fatal to the pups and counter to the restoration mandate.”
Davis said the agency will take the lessons learned from the Copper Creek pack and apply them to future endeavors in the wolf restoration in the state. That includes conversations with federal and ranching partners.
Karney-Saur said the future of the wolves is still unclear, especially where they may be released in the future.
“If the plan is for them to be re-released, we just ask that those local communities, local livestock producers, are contacted before they are released and there is a plan in place because we learned from what happened in Middle Park is that there was really no plan and nobody in that local area in the affected community were contacted,” Karney-Saur said. “I hope we can learn from our past mistakes and have better communication going forward.”
Davis concurred in his statements provided in the wolf capture announcement.
“The more we’re able to listen to understand one another and increase cooperation, the better off we’ll all be in the long run. Our focus in this case now is on a healthy release of the remaining members of the Copper Creek pack,” said Davis.
Davis said CPW’s wildlife veterinarians, federal partners and ranchers, along with internal and external biologists, have created a plan suited to deal with “this unique situation” that will have the wolves and Grand County producers’ best interest at its core.
Colorado wolf spends time in Rocky Mountain National Park CPW said August and September are some of the hardest times for wild wolves, and that holding them for a time will allow CPW to ensure the pack is meeting its caloric needs, and allow the agency to evaluate their progress. This way, biologists can ensure all of the wolves are in good condition before they are re-released.
“We are still in the early stages of the restoration plan. Our legal obligation to Colorado voters is to continue working towards a sustainable population. We also must continue our efforts to minimize losses to our producers and to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of the wolves as we work towards a viable gray wolf population,” said Davis.
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