Another of Colorado’s wolves has died after traveling into Wyoming

One of Colorado’s female gray wolves died in July after traveling to Wyoming. This is the third of the state’s reintroduced wolves to die in the neighboring state, where federal protections and state law differ from Colorado.

On Wednesday, Aug. 6, Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed that it became aware of the wolf’s death on July 24 in Wyoming. The female wolf, 2304, was one of the wolves brought to Colorado from Oregon in December 2023. 

While wolves in Colorado are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act — making it illegal to kill or harass the animals, except with federal permission or in circumstances allowed under the state’s special rule from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — they lose these protections when they travel north in Wyoming.

Gray wolves were removed from the Endangered Species Act in 2017 in Wyoming and other Northern Rocky Mountain states after restoration efforts in the region. 

As such, the vast majority of Wyoming falls under the Wyoming Game and Fish Department predator control rules. In this area — which includes around 85% of the state, including the portion bordering Colorado — wolves can be killed at any time without a license. 

Wyoming state law protects the identity of hunters who kill wolves legally in the state. In compliance with this law, no other details of the female wolf’s death are being shared, Parks and Wildlife said. 

“(Colorado Parks and Wildlife) has no further comment on the mortality as it took place outside of Colorado,” said the agency in its media statement. 

This marks the ninth death of Colorado’s reintroduced wolves. In addition, one of the yearlings born to the Copper Creek Pack was killed by Parks and Wildlife in Pitkin County in May following repeated livestock attacks. 

While one death remains under investigation by the Fish and Wildlife Service, this number has included three deaths from natural causes, relating either to conflict with other wolves and mountain lions. 

The remainder have been related to human activity, including a death caused by a gunshot wound, one occurring after a legal coyote trap trapped the wolf, and three that died after traveling into Wyoming. 

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On March 16, a male wolf was killed by the U.S. Wildlife Services in north-central Wyoming. The federal agency killed the wolf after it was tied to the death of five sheep.

On April 9, a male wolf was killed in Wyoming. Similar to the July death, Wyoming state law prohibited any additional details of the death from being released. 

The Endangered Species Act status of wolves in Wyoming and the other Northern Rocky Mountain states could be revisited after a federal judge in Missoula ruled on Tuesday that the Fish and Wildlife Service must reconsider a petition that it previously denied. The petition, submitted by several conservation groups, asked the agency to relist gray wolves in the region.