DENVER — Colorado Parks and Wildlife wants to release more wolves in Colorado, but they don't know where they will get them.
CPW released 10 wolves in Grand and Summit Counties last week. They captured the released wolves in Oregon, after the state gave Colorado a permit to take up to 10 wolves. CPW hopes to introduce 15 wolves this winter, which means Colorado would want to capture and relocate five more wolves.
"We continue to try to have conversations with other states, other entities that have wolves, to seek agreements where we might be able to source additional animals," CPW Director Jeff Davis said in a press conference after the first wolves were released.
Eric Odell works as CPW's species conservation program manager, but wolves have been his main focus lately.
"We have to have more agreements," Odell told 9NEWS in an interview conducted in late November.
> Watch: The conflict over the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado
He says taking 10 wolves from Oregon won't hurt the state's population, but that might be all Oregon can give.
"I don't think we can rely on Oregon for future years for certain," Odell said. "There's always the possibility that could be renewed, we need to and we want to have a diverse source of wolves for our founding population."
He says they want wolves from multiple sources for social and genetic reasons.
Colorado's first choice, as explained in CPW's management plan, was to get wolves from neighboring mountain states; however, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho rejected Colorado's requests.
CPW also asked Washington. Months ago, the state's Wildlife Commission decided to discuss the request at a later date. That discussion has still not happened.
CPW also asked the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho about providing wolves. In October, the tribe told 9NEWS it was interested in participating.
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