The effort to track and kill a wolf that is believed to have been involved in six livestock depredation incidents in western Colorado’s Rio Blanco County has been called off after wildlife officials were unable to successfully find and shoot the suspect animal over a multi-day stretch.

While wolves translocated into Colorado as part of the wolf reintroduction program have tracking collars, the wolf involved in these depredation cases did not, thus it likely migrated to the state from elsewhere by natural means.

Livestock depredation connected to this wolf started on July 20, with Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirming that depredation on August 5, along with two others, later confirming that six depredation incidents took place in total. In that August 5 report, it was noted that while this chronic depredation would typically constitute a lethal removal operation, the Elk Fire posed too much risk, thus the operation was postponed.

By August 16, the fire-related concerns were diminished and a team was deployed to track and kill the suspect wolf. Apparently the wolf was at one point located, but was ultimately lost due to dense vegetation and difficult terrain. After six days of continued effort, the search for the wolf was called off.

No additional depredations or reports of wolf vocalization have been reported since August 16. Officials plan to keep monitoring wolf activity in the county, but the boots-on-the-ground search has concluded.

“The decision to pursue lethal actions is never an easy one, but the events in Rio Blanco County met the conditions for chronic depredation that were defined with input from the ad-hoc working group,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis. “Removal of animals like this is an unfortunate part of wildlife management that is consistent with the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan and our 10(j) rule.”

A total of 18 to 20 livestock depredation cases have been confirmed thus far this year, impacting 20 animals. Officials did not note if the most recent discovery of deceased animals in Rio Blanco County on August 16 was due to the same instance or separate attacks.

Read more about the recent decision to call off the lethal removal operation here.

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