Here’s how two of Colorado’s gray wolves died this year
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completed investigations for two of this year’s mortalities — an April death in Rocky Mountain National Park and a May death in northwest Colorado
Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Courtesy photo
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released the official cause of death for two of the British Columbia wolves that died in Colorado this year.
The federal agency reported that a mountain lion attack was responsible for the death of the female gray wolf, 2514, which died in Rocky Mountain Park on April 20.
Fish and Wildlife reported that the May 15 death of another female wolf, 2512, was related to “an apparent secondary trauma from a lawful foothold trap used for coyote control,” according to a press release from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. This wolf died somewhere in northwest Colorado.
Parks and Wildlife reported that the foothold trap was allowable under an exception, which enables properties with commercial livestock production to use the traps for 30 days. In this instance, the agency said a 30-day trapping permit was granted and that the trapper notified Parks and Wildlife when it trapped the wolf. The wildlife agency released the animal but reported it died the next day.
Because the trap was placed lawfully, no law enforcement action will be taken, Parks and Wildlife said. It has, however, implemented a “statewide suspension on its practice of issuing 30-day permits that allow taking coyotes or other terrestrial species using foothold/leghold traps, instant-kill body-gripping design traps, or snares and will provide additional guidance as soon as possible.”
The female wolves were two of six total gray wolf mortalities this year. The others included:
— Two wolves were legally killed in Wyoming in March and April.
— Parks and Wildlife killed one of the male yearlings in the Copper Creek Pack in Pitkin County. The lethal action was taken after the pack was connected to multiple livestock attacks in the area over Memorial Day weekend, meeting the agency’s definition for “chronic depredation.”
— The federal agency is still investigating the death of a male wolf in northwest Colorado on May 31.
Fish and Wildlife Service will perform all wolf necropsies for those that die in Colorado as long as gray wolves remain federally listed as endangered in the state.
Even with the six mortalities this year, Parks and Wildlife has reported that wolf survival and mortality remain within a normal threshold in Colorado for the establishing population.
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