“Just having a small number of animals - six or seven - would not have a high probability of persistence over the long term. For a species to be viable in any environment, there must be enough individuals spread out over a large enough area to persist over the long term. If a pack has had pups this year, he cautioned the news would far from guarantee wolves are on their way back after a 70-year absence. Kevin Crooks, an ecologist who leads the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence at Colorado State University, hopes CPW continues to gather and publicly share information about wolves in the state. “If howling surveys indicate possibility of pups, deploying trail cameras might be used to confirm presence of pups, and potentially to indicate minimum number,” according to the document.ĬPW has yet to release the results of those surveys. The process involves biologists stepping out of their trucks, howling in different directions and waiting to hear if adult wolves or wolf pups respond. The document, also obtained by CPR News, instructs staff members to conduct “howl surveys” between mid-June and September. To monitor for such a possibility, Colorado Parks and Wildlife developed a plan to gather evidence of potential breeding. If the remaining two wolves are a breeding pair, Ferrell said there’s a good chance they would have had puppies this spring. “They have long term relationships.”ĭNA results from scats samples released by CPW in March showed four of the six wolves were related, likely as full siblings. “They mate for life really,” noted Ferrell. Packs have a pair of breeding “alphas” that tend to produce a litter of pups every year. While many have referred to the group as a pack, the term has a strict biological definition that still needs further evidence. “But why try to force nature’s hand through an initiative process?”Ĭolorado biologists first confirmed six wolves were living in Moffat County in February. “If it happens naturally - that’s something we have to live with,” he said. If it has to happen, he’d much rather see the species return without human help. Shawn Martini, a vice president of advocacy at the Colorado Farm Bureau and the spokesperson for a campaign against reintroduction, said he would prefer wolves never recolonize Colorado. If voters see the species is coming back on its own, opposing ranchers and farmers think maybe they’ll be less likely to force the species back onto Colorado’s landscape. Colorado will vote in November on whether to reintroduce wolves to the Western Slope. While the sighting is far from solid evidence of wild wolf breeding, it comes at a political crossroads for the species. CPW confirmed the report came from a staff biologist but redacted her identity. Since the biologist was on her personal time, she reported the pup through a form open to the public. “We don’t have any photographic evidence or scat to provide additional confirmation at this time,” Ferrell said.ĬPR News obtained details of the alleged wolf sighting through an open records request. The sighting could mean a group of grey wolves isn’t just living in Colorado for the first time since humans eradicated the species in the 1940s.Ĭolorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Rebecca Ferrell said her office has no reason to doubt a report from one of its own, but it remains a solitary report. A few minutes after the adult disappeared, the biologist reported a dark gray puppy followed the same path. What happened next could be a landmark in Colorado’s natural history. From behind the wheel, the biologist and her husband watched an adult gray wolf cross the dirt before it scampered over a hill. In June, on a remote two-track road in Northwest Colorado, a truck driven by a state biologist stirred up an animal.
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