Rare, escaped Mexican wolf recaptured in Teller County

UPDATE: The half-blind Mexican wolf missing from The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center in Divide was caught late Tuesday night.

The wolf, named Jack by some, was captured about a month after he escaped from the center Nov. 11 — the same day he arrived from a wildlife facility in California.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Jack was caught just before midnight Tuesday, 10 miles north of Divide, in a trap using meat to entice him.

“We had evidence of him traveling 40 miles from the center,” said John Oakleaf, of the USFS. “A wolf ranges over a broad territory. It’s like looking for a needle in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.”

Jack survived on his own despite being just a year old, blind in one eye and raised in captivity.

“I don’t think anyone fed him,” Oakleaf said. “Wolves are resourceful. They know how to survive. He’s lost some weight and has an injured paw but otherwise, he’s fine.”

Jack was taken to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs to be checked by a veterinarian. The zoo has six Mexican wolves on display.

By early Wednesday afternoon, Jack was on his way to a facility in New Mexico, the species’ native range and closer to the federal program to repopulate Mexican wolves in the wild.

“His final stop will be a remote captive facility in New Mexico,” Oakleaf said. “He won’t return to Colorado. If we put him back in the pen from which he escaped, he’s already figured how to get out of it. We want him somewhere different.”

Oakleaf thanked the many Teller County residents who saw Jack or evidence of him, and helped narrow the search.

Wildlife managers said Jack got out of the center after being brought there to breed with other wolves. The center has several Mexican wolves.

The Mexican wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf that was once common throughout the southwest United States but was nearly eliminated from the wild by the 1970s. It is considered endangered.

Also Thursday, ABC News reported that 17 Mexican wolves were found dead last year, a record number. The USFS is investigating how the wolves died.

According to the latest annual count, 114 Mexican wolves remain in the wild and an additional 300 are in captivity.

Previous Story:

Wildlife managers have found tracks that might have been left by an endangered Mexican wolf that escaped from a Colorado wildlife center, but the animal hasn’t been seen for two weeks.

The year-old, captive-born male got out of the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center on Nov. 11. It had been taken there to breed with other wolves.

Aislinn Maestas of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that the wolf was spotted three days later, and tracks were found Friday that the wolf may have left.

Based on those tracks, officers believe the wolf moved northwest from the wildlife center, which is in the town of Divide about 55 miles south of Denver.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is reintroducing Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.