Colorado’s newly transplanted wolves on the move.

cnelk

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Two wolves have traveled quite a distance already.

Read more here

Two of the wolves from Oregon that were released in Colorado have made their way to eastern Moffat County. Colorado Parks and Wildlife Public Information Officer Rachael Gonzales confirms today that recent wolf collar data shows that “two wolves have made some broad movements in the last week and indicates some wolves have recently moved from western Routt County into eastern Moffat County.”



Gonzales added, “It’s important to remember, location points are (at most) collected every four hours and data is downloaded every 16 hours. Wolves can and do move substantial distances between the four hours that points are collected, and the terrain and weather can impact when points are received. This data gives us an informed perspective of where wolves have been, but not where they are, and certainly not where they are going.”



Gonzales tells KRAI/Steamboat Radio News that, “CPW continues to work with livestock producers to provide conflict-mitigation techniques, and will continue to conduct outreach/education in areas that are likely to have wolves.”



She also sent a reminder of the new CPW Wolf Tracking Map that is updated monthly.



Gonzales also said to report credible wolf sightings on the Wolf Sighting Form on the CPW website. This is for anyone who has seen a wolf or seen wolf tracks. “CPW receives hundreds of reports of wolf sightings per year and while we cannot validate every informal sighting, our staff carefully reviews all credible reports submitted through our Wolf Sighting Form. We continue to encourage anyone who sees a wolf or wolf tracks to please submit a wolf sighting report form.”



We asked about sightings of any non-collared wolves in Moffat County and Gonzales said she will find out.
 

sndmn11

"DADDY"
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Morrison, Colorado
Dammit, I was really hoping they would get into Estes/RMNP first.
That might be a really good reason why they dropped them in the dead of winter! Too much snow on the divide and animals migrating west would seem like a "natural" way to keep them out of the front range initially.
 

Cruebee

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Apr 3, 2024
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I'm not sure, but some of the capture images look like these wolves are being picked up out of people's backyards.

I believe this likely means one of or a few of these things.

1. These are problem/trouble wolves. (Animals that are likely already causing, or are skirting the line of causing negative human interaction. )

2. These are wolves that are used to humans / interactions with urban environments. (Isn't the idea to "bring the wild back to the way it was before we eradicated wolves in Colorado to begin with"? Keeping wild things wild in the traditional sense? like pre-human interaction and co-habitation?)

3. These wolves are likely to cause trouble with not only cattle, but people in urban environments too. I really had hoped that Coloradans would remember why wolves were removed from so many states. It's because they kept eating kids, dogs, neighbors, and other pets and stuff like that. People got scared to live with/around/near them. So they required their government to eradicate them. Now we are demanding that they be returned to the same landscape we asked them to remove them from.

Seems ass backwards to me all around. Seems like a bad plan all around.

The only thing we can hope for, is that the CPW keeps their sack and back-bone, and actually manage these animals like we do ALL OTHER SPECIES. We cannot put a Scooby-doo face to these animals like we Yogi-bear Grizzlies. We are on a slippery slope here, and there are no safety lines it seems.
 

Luke S

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Jul 7, 2019
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My memory is rusty but I thought the Yellowstone wolves were kept in pens for a period of time before release so that they (theoretically) lost interest in returning to Canada. Supposedly that kept them in Yellowstone. This seems to have been more of rushed deal so I wonder if the wolves aren't as likely to stay put? Or maybe CO just isn't as good of wolf habitat so they are roaming more?
 

Blandry

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Nov 26, 2017
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here we go... https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/w...confirmed-kill-after-predators-reintroduction

Old news..... Gittleson has reached out to CPW for clarification surrounding the new Endangered Species Act rules for removing wolves in Colorado. He also put in a request that CPW take action after this latest attack.

“I sent them a letter, asking for their removal,” Gittleson said. “In Colorado, they don’t have a definition for what a problem wolf or a problem pack of wolves is. With a definition, you do have a clear, really clear idea of when they become a problem, and it was something that I pushed to get.”
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 1, 2022
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My memory is rusty but I thought the Yellowstone wolves were kept in pens for a period of time before release so that they (theoretically) lost interest in returning to Canada. Supposedly that kept them in Yellowstone. This seems to have been more of rushed deal so I wonder if the wolves aren't as likely to stay put? Or maybe CO just isn't as good of wolf habitat so they are roaming more?
Same
 

mt terry d

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Shoot2HuntU
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My memory is rusty but I thought the Yellowstone wolves were kept in pens for a period of time before release so that they (theoretically) lost interest in returning to Canada. Supposedly that kept them in Yellowstone. This seems to have been more of rushed deal so I wonder if the wolves aren't as likely to stay put? Or maybe CO just isn't as good of wolf habitat so they are roaming more?
Correct. As I recall they were kept penned up somewhere in the Lamar Valley. I heard a female worker who was feeding them was killed. I can't verify that but obviously if it did happen news outlets would never print it.

They still roamed plenty. It's not like there wasn't good habitat and food for them wherever they went.
Thankfully many of the roamers ceased roaming. Forever.
 
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