Agencies educate Pitkin County on conflict reduction between wolves, livestock

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale/The Aspen Times
Wolves were reintroduced to Colorado almost exactly a year ago.
Apart from a handful of wolves wandering over the state border in the last half decade, the reintroduction brings the first wolves to Colorado since they were eradicated in the 1940s.
With the reintroduction comes ranchers’ woes about depredation, or wolf killings of livestock. Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Agriculture, among others, presented non-lethal wolf management strategies to ranchers on Thursday at the Pitkin County Library.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Wolf Conflict Specialist Adam Baca encouraged ranchers to focus on non-lethal methods such as “carcass management practices,” “night penning,” “range riding,” and “hazing” to mitigate wolf conflicts with livestock.
“We are seeing these tools work in the state,” Baca said.
The best carcass management, or management of livestock that has died, involves removing the carcass off the landscape and hauling them to the landfill to keep from attracting wolves to living livestock, according to Dustin Shiflett, Colorado Department of Agriculture conservation specialist.
Ranchers should also remove or bury any bone piles and should remove carcasses from calving grounds.
Baca added that ranchers should deter wolves from approaching livestock overnight using fences to protect their animals after the sun sets — called night penning.
“Night fencing is something that’s been proven pretty darn effective in a number of places,” he said.
Ranchers can also take pro-active approaches such as range riding and night watch, or a horseback patrol during the day and night to discourage wolves from going after livestock, Shiflett said. A human presence discourages carnivores from pursuing livestock.
Guard dogs and noise emitting drones work effectively against wolf depredation, according to Lauren Emerick, who works in US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services.
The most aggressive approach to warding off wolves includes methods of “hazing” — chasing off wolves on horseback, or shooting near wolves. Shiflett said aggressively hazing means making physical contact with wolves, by shooting them with rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, or paintballs. Ranchers must obtain a permit to aggressively haze.
Wolves are most likely to come into conflict with livestock during calving season, occurring in the spring or early summer, Baca said. They are least likely to go after livestock after the elk rut, mating season for elk, which occurs in the fall.
There have been 46 instances of wolf depredation since 2021, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Currently nine wolves roam free in Colorado, and five are being monitored in captivity.
Baca reminded ranchers that they may only kill a wolf if it threatens human health or safety.
They will investigate wolf killings, said Travis Black, northwest regional manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
If hazing rules weren’t applied as they should be and a wolf was killed, “then you’d be opening yourself up to investigation,” Black said.
Baca said there has not been a recorded wolf attack on a human in Colorado since reintroduction.
State agencies have set aside funding to provide assistance for ranchers to invest in non-lethal means to deter wolf predation, he said. Colorado Parks and Wildlife acquired $900,000 to put toward wolf depredation management, depredation compensation, and to hire depredation damage specialists.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture set aside $300,000 to contribute to range riding and carcass management for ranchers. Wildlife Services set aside $100,000 for non-lethal conflict deterrents, and can help provide guard dogs, drone efforts, and wildlife camera deployment.
The National Resources Conservation Service will contribute $2.5 million over five years to provide funding for range riding, fencing, carcass removal, and depredation monitoring.
If concerned about wolf predation, Baca encouraged ranchers to get a site assessment for their ranch to see if, or how, their ranch might be vulnerable to depredation. To do so, they should contact their district wildlife manager.
“It’s a new animal on the landscape, but it’s just another animal on the landscape,” said Rachael Gonzales, Colorado Parks and Wildlife public information officer. “Like with any animal, we grow and move on, it’s learning how to work with it and adapt to the landscape.”
Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.
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