Colorado’s release of wolves draws howls
DENVER – Colorado launches a controversial experiment next month: State officials will release up to 10 gray wolves as mandated by a 2020 law that unleashed proverbial howls of protest.
Over time, the state plans to release up to 50 wolves with the hope of creating self-sustaining packs of 150-200 animals.
Wolves have long been a divisive species. Colorado voters barely approved the wolves’ reintroduction – and the law got most of its support from liberal urban residents far from where the wolves will be released.
Many farmers and ranchers consider wolves an unacceptable risk to humans and livestock. A single adult wolf can kill as many as 20 elk annually, say ranchers, who worry the time they’ll spend protecting their livestock will shave their already thin margins.
But for many Americans, wolves evoke a powerful connection with wild places and the natural world. Backers of Colorado’s reintroduction plan say that wolves are an important part of the ecosystem in the West. They argue that safety concerns are wildly overblown, and that ranchers who lose livestock will be fairly compensated by taxpayers.
“The return of the wolf to Colorado has the potential to be an historic ecological success,” Michael Saul, Defenders of Wildlife regional field director, said in a statement.
Because wild wolves were largely exterminated nationally by the 1940s, they were among the first animals protected by the 1973 Endangered Species Act, which obligated the federal government to try restoring them.
Federal officials began relocating Canadian wolves into Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s, and then to other western states a decade later. Long-running court battles complicated efforts.
While many western states today have healthy wolf populations, Colorado
is home to only a handful of wild wolves. They likely moved down from Wyoming, according to officials, with evidence they have been breeding.
In 2021, wolves in northern Colorado killed a 500-pound cow – the first documented wolf kill of livestock in Colorado in at least 70 years.
A study from the Yellowstone wolf reintroductions found that most remained within 50 miles of the dropoff point, but some moved as far as 140 miles. In the first eight years, those newly introduced wolves killed 256 sheep and 41 cows.
Complications followed the 2020 vote. Colorado had to get permission from the federal government to create and manage the new herds.
Several states refused to provide wolves. Wyoming and Utah officials worry Colorado’s new wolves will ignore state borders, and have already signaled they want Colorado to pay if the new wolves kill their livestock.
Finally, Colorado officials persuaded their Oregon counterparts to let them relocate up to 10 wolves this year. The wolves will be 1-5 years old, both male and female, screened for diseases and outfitted with GPS trackers.
The wolves are not being released onto federal land, although they will likely end up on it: 36% of Colorado is federal property.