A wolf has officially crossed I-25, per Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials.

While wolves have come relatively close in the past to the Front Range metro areas, up until recent days, no wolf has been known to have crossed the major north-south interstate that splits Colorado’s mountainous terrain and the Eastern Plains region. While a wolf has now crossed I-25, it was in a relatively less-populated area, traveling through the watersheds in Southern Colorado that are located in Pueblo, Otero, and Las Animas counties. It then traveled back west to cross the interstate again in a large loop.

“This activity east of I-25 highlights the broad movements made by dispersing wolves,” wrote Colorado Parks and Wildlife in a press release on the matter. “CPW is in active communication with producers who have known wolf activity near their operations and is coordinating access to conflict minimization resources.”

The latest mapping from Colorado Parks and Wildlife depicts how the wolf traveled through southeast Colorado, with watersheds where the wolf was present stretching to the New Mexico and Kansas borders. Given a break in the watersheds found in southern Colorado, it’s possible that the wolf may have briefly crossed into New Mexico, as well. It’s crucial to note, however, that watersheds are vast and just because the presence of a wolf is detected in a watershed, it doesn’t mean they were present in the entire watershed.

Meanwhile, most of the other wolf movement depicted on the latest wolf activity map, which accounts for movement from May 26 through June 23, took place in areas where wolves have already been detected, centering around northern and western Colorado.

See the full map depicting wolf movement over the past several weeks below:

Since the December 2023 reintroduction, wildlife officials have been tracking wolves brought into Colorado via GPS collars. This data is used to produce a monthly map of where wolves have been in recent weeks. While wolves may have been present in a given watershed, it doesn’t mean they’re still there.

Learn more about wolves in Colorado and find additional related resources here.

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