DENVER — Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) went outside the United States to secure a new source for gray wolves in its second year of reintroduction efforts, the agency said on Friday.
Colorado will get up to 15 wolves from the B.C. Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship in British Columbia, Canada. The wolves will be captured and released in Colorado between December and March, CPW said in a news release.
CPW plans to release 10 to 15 wolves per year in western Colorado for three to five years. This release will be the second one, after 10 wolves were released last December in Grand and Summit counties.
“Gray wolves from the Canadian Rockies were used for reintroduction in Idaho and Yellowstone," aid Eric Odell, CPW wolf conservation program manager. "There are no biological differences between wolves in British Columbia and the wolves released in Colorado last year, and the new source population will provide additional genetic diversity to our state’s small but growing wolf population.”
Colorado will be responsible for all costs associated with the capture and relocation, as was also the case for last year's reintroduction operation, the agency said.
CPW said wolves will be tested and treated for disease in Canada. Any captured wolf with major injuries will not be chosen for reintroduction.
Each wolf will have a GPS collar, and the wolves will be transported in aluminum crates either by airplane or truck.
“We are grateful to the B.C. Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship for working with our agency on this critical next step in reintroducing gray wolves in the state,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis. “Their willingness and ability to work with another jurisdiction to support our conservation priorities, as they have in past translocation efforts, demonstrates their long-shared commitment to seeing this species succeed.”
The announcement comes after CPW's prior source for wolves, the Colville Tribes, said on June 11 that they wouldn't source any wolves, after all. After CPW's leaders learned that the deal had collapsed, they did not tell CPW commissioners until weeks later, on July 30, 9NEWS Investigates learned.
Ten gray wolves were released in Grand and Summit counties in mid-December in accordance with a voter-approved reintroduction program. In addition, Colorado wildlife officials collared two wolves in Jackson County after wolves dispersed to that area on their own in 2021.
CPW tracks wolves in the state and releases a monthly report on their movements.