A new gray wolf pack has formed in Eagle County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced on Wednesday.

Known as the Piney Ridge Pack, it is the fourth pack of gray wolves in the state to have produced pups this year. According to CPW, the average litter size for wolves is four to six pups.

More information about the packs will be included in the agency’s annual report next spring.

“Detection of pups in late spring or early summer is inherently challenging, because of their use of remote habitats in dense cover, secretive nature of very young animals and time potentially underground,” said CPW’s Wolf Conservation Program Manager Eric Odell. “We are continuing to monitor the four reproducing packs in Colorado and will include minimum counts of the entire wolf population in our annual biological year report next spring.”

Data shows wolves in established packs survive at higher rates than wolves that disperse or remain solitary. CPW says pack formation also helps reduce conflicts — a key concern in Colorado, where more than a dozen gray wolves have died over the past two years.

Several of those wolves had to be killed by CPW staff after being identified for chronic depredation on local livestock, including one in Routt County last month. A CPW report concluded that the wolf was responsible for killing at least 22 sheep over the past year, and experts believed it would continue preying on livestock if it weren’t removed.

“The decision to pursue lethal action is never easy, but this wolf’s repeated depredation made it a difficult yet necessary step,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Laura Clellan said. She added that producers worked closely with CPW to use every reasonable nonlethal tool identified through site assessments and consultations with field staff.

To date, the state has paid over $1 million to ranchers on the Western Slope who have lost livestock to wolf depredation. Last year, an organization called Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy introduced a proposed ballot measure for the 2026 election that would end the state’s wolf reintroduction plan. However, late last August, the group announced it was putting a “pause” on the petition process and the initiative did not qualify for this November’s ballot.

According to CPW’s wolf monitoring and data coordinator, Dr. Brenna Cassidy, of the 10 wolves that died between April 2025 and March of 2026, seven were dispersers or “lone wolves.”

“This shows us the benefit of having more packs on the Colorado landscape for both adult survival and reproduction as we work to achieve the goals of the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan,” said Cassidy.

Samantha Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity said the news of the new pack was encouraging.

“Four packs reproducing in a single year shows that wolves can thrive in our state, when they’re given the chance,” she said. “Now we need to stay committed to giving these families the opportunity to survive and thrive alongside our communities. Implementing better approaches to the state’s management of livestock conflicts would be a great place to start.”