There’s officially a new wolf pack in Colorado – the Piney Ridge Pack in Eagle County.

According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), this pack has formed after successful reproduction this year, joining three other packs that were successful in reproduction, too – One Ear, Three Creeks, and Copper Creek packs. The King Mountain pack, which did not successfully reproduce, consists solely of pups, having lost both adult breeding wolves in recent months.

While CPW noted that the average litter size for wolves is four to six pups, no information was provided about how many pups were born in the Piney Ridge Pack.

It will be a while before more in-depth information about the new Piney Ridge Pack is released, as pack status tends to get covered most in-depth during CPW’s annual reports, which are released each spring. The 2026-2027 report will be coming out in spring of 2027, with this year’s edition published in May.

While it’s likely these pups were born at the time of that report, detection of pups during late spring and early summer is extremely difficult due to how young wolves spend much of their time in underground dens or hidden away in dense cover.

The formation of packs has shown to be important when it comes to the overall restoration effort, as wolves in packs have a higher survival rate. Pack living is also reportedly shown to play a role in conflict minimization efforts, as wolves that are in packs establish a range opposed to roaming more freely into new areas. Considering that, it’s worth noting that CPW also says that when wolves are in a more predictable area, it helps wildlife officials know where to prioritize the use of conflict minimization tools and techniques.

During the last biological year, 10 wolves died in Colorado, only three of which were part of a pack.

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