For the first time since wolves were reintroduced in Colorado, a rancher has admitted to the fatal shooting of a wolf, an acknowledgment that underlines the tension between the state and livestock owners and raises questions about transparency and accountability with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The owner of one of the largest ranches in Colorado says her ranch hand shot and killed the mother of four yearling pups in the King Mountain pack in March and the shooting remains under investigation by the federal government — a probe that is costing her tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to protect herself and the employee from criminal charges.
The King Mountain pack was one of four known packs that produced litters in 2025. The loss of its adults will hamper the state’s voter-mandated ballot measure to build a self-sustaining wolf population.
Susan Nottingham, owner of Nottingham Ranch in Bond, publicly divulged the incident when she wrote about the shooting in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s request for public comments on how Colorado Parks and Wildlife has handled wolf reintroduction since it began in 2023. Nottingham’s comments were published in the Federal Register.
State wildlife officials have not publicly mentioned the shooting or the wolf’s death except to note that a “mortality” had occurred. Since wolves have been reintroduced, three have died from shootings but wildlife officials have never disclosed who was responsible except in cases where the state shot a wolf because it killed livestock.
The death of the King Mountain female in March followed her mate’s death. That wolf died in January during a routine trapping operation to fit it with a collar.
Ten wolves were introduced to Grand and Summit counties in December 2023 and members of what would become the King Mountain pack “found their way” to Nottingham’s ranch, she wrote.
The breeding pair established a den in the region and had four pups in April of 2025.
That summer, Nottingham suspected wolves had killed several of her livestock, but said CPW refused to confirm the deaths. Her cattle spend the summer on a U.S. Forest Service allotment governed by a specific grazing management plan, and due to the presence of wolves, she was unable to keep the cattle in their designated pastures, she wrote.
By fall, she said she was 60 calves short — an economic loss of $180,000 in today’s market. “CPW’s response was minimal: they provided a rider for the summer, but one inexperienced person equipped only with a camera was ineffective. The riding program operates from May through October, leaving ranchers without support afterward,” she wrote.
In October, CPW confirmed wolves had killed three calves on Nottingham’s ranch but would not grant her a permit to kill the offending wolf, she wrote, due to an issue with a historic trash or “carcass dump” used by her hunting outfitter during hunting season.
Despite spending tens of thousands of dollars on an appeal, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission considered her request for just three minutes before denying it.
It’s unclear from Nottingham’s comment whether her employee had asked for a permit before he shot the King Mountain female. Nottingham did write once both adults were gone, the pups moved into a hay field where she calves 1,100 cows. She told The Colorado Sun she couldn’t discuss the details.
In her comment, Nottingham said the investigation (into the shooting) is ongoing.
“We did not request this situation. It was forced upon us with little to no help from CPW,” whose “management strategies are severely lacking,” she added.
“Colorado is not an appropriate habitat for gray wolves — it is not Yellowstone Park. Every mountain valley not occupied by development or recreation is used for cattle or sheep ranching. CPW cannot effectively manage the wolf population and maintain ranching on the landscape. This is also an incredibly cruel situation for the animals involved.”
1,000 public comments and counting
In April the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service posted its request for public comment on the Federal Register, the official daily journal of the U.S. government that contains federal agency rules, proposed rules and public notices.
The request came after Fish and Wildlife Director Brian Nesvik scrutinized Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program and threatened to wrest management from CPW if the agency didn’t do a full accounting of management actions since wolves from Oregon first hit the ground as part of Colorado’s reintroduction.
CPW answered that demand in January and pushed back on allegations it had gotten wolves for a second round of reintroduction illegally from British Columbia.
In a letter accompanying the 400-page report, CPW Director Laura Clellan wrote that the agency respectfully disagreed with Fish and Wildlife’s interpretation that the 10(j) rule limits the source population for wolves or otherwise prohibits CPW from sourcing wolves in British Columbia. Only the preamble to rule does, she said. The rule is up for public comment.
Fish and Wildlife filed its latest request for comments April 4 with a closing date of June 5.
As of Wednesday, around 1,000 comments had been filed.
Jay Tutchton, vice chair of the CPW commission, told The Sun he couldn’t comment on the wolf shooting as he didn’t know much about it.
According to CPW, a rancher can seek a retroactive permit after shooting a wolf if they can prove they caught it in the act of attacking livestock.
CPW officials can also kill a wolf if it is proven to have killed livestock three times in a 30-day period.
This wasn’t the first time a wolf pack set up camp near a ranch and repeatedly harassed or killed livestock. In 2024, CPW trapped the first pack to form in Colorado, the Copper Creek pack, after the male and possibly female killed dozens of sheep on Conway Farrell’s ranch in Grand County. The decision to remove them came after the agency denied a request by Ferrell to take lethal action to protect his livestock.
The male died shortly after capture and a necropsy revealed it had been shot. A criminal investigation has been ongoing ever since with Fish and Wildlife and conservation groups offering a reward for information exceeding $100,000.
The female and four of five pups were kept in captivity for several months before being re-released on private property in Old Snowmass in Pitkin County. CPW and Wildlife Services shot a fifth Copper Creek pup, but didn’t kill it, after it had preyed on livestock in Rio Blanco County.
The agency killed one yearling after it was confirmed to have killed calves in Pitkin and Garfield counties.
The Fish and Wildlife Service did not return The Sun’s calls for comment.