Colorado’s wolves were on the move last month, with their range reaching into what appears to be the most expansive swath of the state since the December 2023 reintroduction.

Each month, Colorado Parks and Wildlife releases a ‘wolf activity’ map, which utilizes data collected by tracking collars to determine which watershed areas had wolves present. It’s important to note that while a watershed area might be highlighted on the map, this doesn’t mean that wolves were present in that entire watershed, nor does it mean that a wolf is still there.

The most recent map accounts for February 25 to March 25. It shows that wolves were present in watershed areas located in 14 of Colorado’s 64 counties, including:

• Chaffee
• Clear Creek
• Eagle
• Garfield
• Grand
• Gunnison
• Jackson
• Mesa
• Moffat
• Park
• Pitkin
• Rio Blanco
• Routt
• Summit

The comparison of the two maps below shows how wolf activity in the most recent release of data compares to that of the prior release. Mapping based on the prior data release is shown first, followed by mapping based on the most recent release from this week:

By last count, it appears as if 29 wolves are confirmed to be present in the state, including seven wolves of the initial December 2023 releases, five wolf pups of the Copper Creek pack formed by wolves of that initial release, 14 of the 15 wolves released this year, an uncollared wolf that was last spotted in northwest Colorado in February, and two wolves who moved south into Colorado from Wyoming in recent years.

The most notable wolf-related news of the last month is perhaps that one of the 15 wolves relocated to Colorado this year was killed during a livestock predation mitigation project in Wyoming, blamed for killing five sheep.