Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirms sightings of new wolf pups

Colorado’s wolf population is growing. 

A Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson confirmed Thursday that staff have seen new wolf pups this spring. 

The agency is monitoring four den sites, relying on aerial observations, ground observations, remote trail cameras, as well as public sightings to do so, the spokesperson said. 

Parks and Wildlife does not yet have a reliable count of how many pups there are. 

“(Parks and Wildlife) staff have begun to get minimum counts of pups by both direct observations and indirect methods,” the spokesperson said. “It is important to note that sighting numbers (especially from early season sightings) are not a guaranteed number of animals since certainty in detection is low, based on continued denning, moving to rendezvous sites, and being in varied habitat.”

Eighteen months into the voter-mandated wolf reintroduction effort, Colorado has brought 25 wolves from Oregon and British Columbia, eight of which have since died. 

Last year, one pair of wolves successfully had five pups. Deemed the Copper Creek pack, these wolves have been embroiled in controversy since their inception. Six of the pack’s wolves were captured and placed in a sanctuary after being connected to a number of livestock killings in Grand County. A seventh, one of the pups, evaded capture. 

Following their capture, the pack’s adult male wolf died in captivity from injuries it suffered from a gunshot wound. The adult female and the four pups were re-released in the wild in January. In May, one of the pack’s yearlings was killed by Parks and Wildlife after the wolves were tied to livestock attacks in Pitkin County.