Colorado wolves seen as far south as Fremont County for first time since reintroduction
By Sadie Buggle
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FREMONT COUNTY, Colo (KRDO) — A recently released map showing wolf activity in Colorado is indicating that one wolf has explored as far south as Fremont County for the first time since wolves were reintroduced to the state.
On Jan. 22, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) posted the updated Collared Gray Wolf Activity Map on its website to show where wolves are distributed around the state this month.
The latest updated map comes just days after CPW completed the second wave of wolf reintroductions, with 15 new wolves relocated from British Columbia to Colorado. Wildlife officials also released five wolves from the Copper Creek pack that were captured last year after multiple livestock depredation incidents.
In total, Colorado is now home to 29 gray wolves.
The newly introduced wolves were released in Eagle and Pitkin counties after extensive studies on the best locations for release, CPW said.
But the activity map released Wednesday shows one collared female wolf traversed through a watershed including Lake, Park, Chaffee and Fremont counties, possibly even coming as south as near Cañon City.
This marks the first time since wolf reintroduction efforts began in December of 2023 that a wolf has explored this far south.
The map shows wolf activity between Dec. 22 and Jan. 21. CPW noted that just because a watershed shows wolf activity doesn’t mean the wolf was present through the entire watershed, or is there currently.
As the wolves begin to move to new areas of the state, CPW said it has prepared to assist ranchers through expanded and improved capabilities in the Conflict Minimization program, which will allow for faster response to conflicts and a higher likelihood of effective non-lethal deployment.
CPW asks that anyone who believes they’ve seen wolves in their area fill out their wolf sighting form, especially if they have photos or videos, in order to better understand the level of investigation needed.
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