Colorado Parks and Wildlife captured the two adult wolves and four pups that make up the Copper Creek pack, but the adult male died after its capture, the agency confirmed in a news release Monday afternoon.
The agency, which in late August announced plans to remove the pack due to repeated livestock killings in the area , said the breeding female of the pack, No. 2312, and four pups were all captured without injury or incident using foothold traps. The pack mother was captured first and found in good body condition. No other pups were found.
Colorado captured 10 wolves in Oregon and released them in Grand and Summit counties in December of 2023.
The agency also said the pups — identified as 2401, 2403, 2405 and 2402 in the news release — were captured over the course of three days, with capture operations concluding Sept. 8. The pups were underweight but otherwise healthy, according to the release. The state wildlife agency previously confirmed the pack had three pups but said it expected the pack to include more.
All six animals from the pack were transported to a secure location for evaluation and monitoring, the release said.
Colorado regulations prohibit wildlife to be taken from the wild and possessed by any commercial wildlife park, noncommercial wildlife park or wildlife sanctuary.
Reid DeWalt, agency deputy director, said the wolves are allowed to be temporarily housed at the facility while under state authority because they are not being held there permanently.
What's next for the Copper Creek pack's mother and pups?
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis told journalists the four pups will be held at an undisclosed facility and released together when they get closer to adult size.
He said that gives the siblings, which were born in April, a better chance of survival.
It is not known if the agency plans to release the wolf pups with the next batch of released wolves expected late winter of this year and early winter of 2025, as some have speculated the agency might do .
Davis said there is "no evidence" of the four pups being involved in any livestock depredations in Grand County, saying the wolves are too young to have taken part in the incidents.
He said they will be returned to the wild to contribute to the state's wolf restoration plan.
He said the agency is unsure if the mother of the pack will be released again in Colorado or held in permanent captivity.
The state's wolf recovery plan states: "The translocation of depredating wolves to a different part of the state will not be considered, as this is viewed as translocating the problem along with the wolves."
However, the federal 10(j) rule that covers managing Colorado's wolves as experimental does provide a possible path for relocation. The rule reads: "Management of the nonessential experimental population would allow gray wolves in the NEP to be hazed, killed, or relocated by the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) Service or our designated agent(s) for livestock depredations."
Davis said had the father of the pack not died, the plan was for it to be placed in permanent captivity.
The news release acknowledged the state's wolf recovery plan states that the agency will not relocate wolves with depredation histories into the wild within Colorado."The plan also calls for flexibility," Davis said in the release. "And it may not at times account for every unique situation the agency and our experts encounter."
Davis said the agency will have conversations with local elected officials and landowners in possible release areas before a release occurs.
How did the pack's breeding male die?
The agency said the pack's breeding male, 2309, was in poor condition when trapped, using a foothold trap.
Here is how Monday's new release explained the wolf's death:
"The adult male wolf, 2309-OR who was captured next following the capture of 2312-OR, was found in poor condition, with several injuries to his right hind leg, unrelated to the capture. The wolf’s body weight was nearly 30% lower than it was when he was released in December.
"CPW staff administered antibiotics in an effort to address infections from his injury. Four days after transport, CPW’s wolf team biologists received a mortality signal from 2309-OR’s collar and the animal was confirmed to be deceased. CPW staff believes that it was unlikely the wolf would have survived for very long in the wild."
Eric Odell, the agency's wolf program manager, said it is unknown what may have caused the injuries to the wolf's right hind leg and could have been caused by another animal attack, possibly by another predator.
When asked, Odell said he believed the drag chain used with the leghold traps to help secure the wolves were 12 feet long.
Carter Niemeyer, who spent three decades trapping and killing wolves for the federal government, said he caught nearly 300 wolves in leghold traps without killing one.
Niemeyer said he doesn't know details of what may have caused the injuries to the wolf's leg but said using long drag chains when trapping can lead to serious injuries.
"Wolves can get tangled up in barbwire, sharp tree limbs and sticks and other sharp objects with long drag chains," he told the Coloradoan. "We will have to see what the necropsy says."
Davis said a full necropsy of the dead male will be conducted by a third party.
Wolf 2309 was 2 years, 7 months old and weighed 104 pounds when captured in Oregon on Dec. 19 and released in Summit County the following day, according to the agency's annual wolf report released last week and previous Coloradoan reporting .
The wolf belonged to the Wenaha pack, which was discovered by Colorado media to have been involved in two livestock depredations in October and September of 2023 , just months before its capture and release in December.
Since 2309 and another adult male from the Wenaha pack, 2307, were captured and released in Colorado, the Wenaha pack has not had another depredation, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Grand County ranchers living near the pack's den and rendezvous sites claim the parents of the pack have largely been responsible for 16 confirmed wolf depredations of cattle and sheep in the county since April 2.
That prompted the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, which represents Grand County ranchers, to over several months repeatedly ask the state wildlife agency to remove the parent wolves.
Davis refused the request, citing the need to restore the wolf population as directed by the voter-approved ballot initiative, until Aug. 27, when he announced his surprise decision in a news release about the capture operation, saying the agency's "options in this unique case were very limited."
He said in Monday's release that removing the adult male in the spring 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.
Wolf 2309 is the second released wolf to die.
No. 2303, a male wolf that was 1 year, 7 months old and weighed 76 pounds at the time of its release in December of 2023, was likely killed by a mountain lion in mid-April in northwestern Larimer County.
Timeline of the Copper Creek wolfpack capture operation
Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff began the foothold trapping operation with technical support from federal partners Aug. 22.
- Aug. 24: Adult female 2312 was captured. She had a working GPS collar.
- Aug. 30: Adult male 2309 was captured. He did not have a functioning GPS collar for several months but was fitted with a working one after being captured. He died Sept. 3.
- Sept. 3: Male pup 2401 was captured.
- Sept. 4: Male pups 2403 and 2405 were captured.
- Sept. 5: Female pup 2402 was captured.
Note: Colorado Parks and Wildlife continued the trapping and monitoring operation for three days after Sept. 5 to make sure there were no additional pups present.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado Parks and Wildlife captures Copper Creek wolf pack, announces male's death
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