A fast-moving wildfire in Rio Blanco County will keep state wildlife officers from tracking and killing a wolf blamed for killing two lambs and a ewe.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed three predation events, on July 20 and 22 and Aug. 2, and an investigation found the situation meets the agency’s definition of chronic depredation.
“Under normal circumstances this situation would warrant lethal removal operations in the area, however, the allotments where the depredations occurred are under evacuation due to the Elk Fire,” Colorado Park and Wildlife officials said in a statement Tuesday. “As such CPW’s primary concerns are the safety of staff deployed to the area and safety of the community.”
Since July 20, CPW has been coordinating with producers and local woolgrowers’ associations and has provided an around-the-clock range rider, the agency said. The producer whose animals were killed also used nonlethal methods to haze the wolves away.
The wolf is uncollared, meaning that it is not one of the animals that CPW translocated to Colorado from British Columbia or Oregon. Wildlife officials are still gathering information to determine where the wolf came from.
The gray wolves brought to Colorado after voters approved reintroduction in 2020, yearlings from a litter born last year in Grand County and a pair believed to have migrated to North Park from Wyoming are collared and tracked by CPW.
CPW spokesperson Luke Perkins said in an email that the number of uncollared wolves in Colorado will grow as packs establish and reproduce. “In the future CPW will work to maintain two collars in each established pack as part of our long-term management of Colorado’s gray wolf population.”
In the meantime, wildlife officers will continue to monitor the situation in Rio Blanco County, CPW said, and work with emergency services to prioritize human safety and minimize the loss of livestock.
“This is a truly unprecedented set of circumstances and my thoughts are with the firefighters and the emergency responders who are working to minimize damage in Rio Blanco County, as well as the producers and CPW’s staff,” Jeff Davis, CPW’s director said in a statement.