Parks and Wildlife recollars wolf that had slipped out of its GPS device

Colorado Parks and Wildlife recollared a male wolf near North Park on Saturday, just weeks after the same wolf slipped out of a collar it was outfitted with earlier in the month.

According to a news release, Wolf 2101 was collared Feb. 2 alongside one of its offspring, but the GPS device came off

Wolf 2101 days later.

The recollaring means two gray wolves in the area are once again wearing GPS devices. Three wolves in the North Park pack had collars at one point — two placed by Parks and Wildlife and a third that was on one of the wolves when it migrated into Colorado. But the collars stopped working last year, according to Parks and Wildlife.

The North Park pack came to be when two wolves, including 2101, migrated from Wyoming and had Colorado’s first litter of pups in decades. There were as many as eight wolves in the pack last year, officials believe, but three of the wolves appear to have been killed legally in Wyoming in the fall.

Because the collars stopped working, Parks and Wildlife hasn’t been able to gather as much data about the pack, so an early February collaring effort put devices on 2101 and one of its suspected male pups, 2301.

The North Park pack has killed livestock and dogs at a ranch near Walden, generating concern about the presence of wolves as a reintroduction plan is taking shape. The draft plan for reintroduction was released in December. It details how 10 to 15 wolves will be released before the end of the year in an area that includes part of South Routt County.