http://wildlife.state.co.us/NewsMedia/PressReleases/

Another Yellowstone Wolf Confirmed in Colorado


EAGLE COUNTY, Colo. – A Yellowstone wolf dispersing from her pack in southwestern Montana is now wandering the Colorado high country after a journey of perhaps 1,000 miles, Colorado Division of Wildlife officials announced today.

The global positioning satellite collar attached to the 18-month-old female indicated her last known position was in Eagle County. She separated from her pack just north of the Yellowstone National Park boundary in September and has now traveled across five states, federal biologists said.

“Young wolves often cover remarkable distances looking for a mate and a new territory,” said DOW director Tom Remington. “If this wolf doesn’t find a pack, she’ll likely keep moving. We’ve seen at least one Yellowstone wolf in Colorado before, but we have no reason to believe that wolves have established a pack in the state yet.”

The gray wolf is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and may not be killed or harassed without federal approval. Colorado’s wolf policy allows for wolves to move freely throughout the state as long as they don’t come in conflict with people or livestock.

The wolf roaming Colorado, known as 314F, was a member of the Mill Creek Pack when she was caught and collared by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks as part of a research effort with the University of Montana to improve wolf monitoring techniques. The data provided by her collar has allowed researchers to track her epic journey across an enormous chunk of the Rocky Mountain region.

According to satellite data, the wolf passed south through Yellowstone National Park and the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming southeast of Pinedale. She then traversed widely through southwestern Wyoming and wandered through southeast Idaho and northeastern Utah before crossing into Colorado within the past two weeks. The wolf is now 450 miles from its origin, but has traveled at least 1,000 miles overall.

The last confirmed wolf in Colorado also came from Yellowstone. The young female was killed by a vehicle on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs in June, 2004. In 2007, video footage of a black, wolf-like canid was taken near Walden, CO, in the North Park area. While this footage was highly suggestive, the animal was not wearing a radio collar and its identity could not be verified. The DOW has received other reports of wolf sightings throughout the state in recent years. None have been confirmed.

Wolves generally disperse within 60 miles of their pack, although biologists have documented approximately 10 wolves since 1992 that traveled in excess of 190 miles in search of a mate. The actual number of long-distance dispersers may be higher; less than 30 percent of the northern Rocky Mountain wolf population has been radio-collared. None of the long-distance dispersing wolves from the northern Rocky Mountain population have successfully formed packs or bred. Lone wolves typically have low survival rates outside of occupied wolf range.

Native populations of gray wolves were extirpated from Colorado by the late 1930's. Prior to 2004, the last known record of an individual wolf killed in Colorado was in 1943.

However, wolf biologists expect that dispersers from the Yellowstone area, Idaho and Montana will continue to attempt to reestablish populations in suitable portions of their former range. In 2004, the Colorado Division of Wildlife adopted a wolf management plan when and if wolves may try to naturally recolonize the state. The policy establishes that wolves may roam freely in Colorado unless they come into conflict with people or livestock. Such conflicts would be addressed on a case-by-case basis by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in consultation with the DOW.

Colorado has no plans to reintroduce the wolf.

As a listed endangered species, wolves may not be harassed, pursued, hunted, shot, captured, trapped or killed, nor may any member of the public engage in such conduct unless a wolf poses a legitimate threat to human safety. The DOW reminds hunters and the general public that they should exercise additional caution to ensure this wolf is not mistaken for a coyote.

“The Division of Wildlife relies on the public to help us track wolf sightings,” said Shane Briggs, a wildlife conservation specialist with the agency. “Potential wolf sightings should be reported to the DOW immediately.” A report form is posted on the Division of Wildlife Website at: http://wildlife.state.co.us/Wi...Mammals/GrayWolf.htm

Additional information about this wolf will be reported in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s interagency weekly reports that are posted on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Website at: http://westerngraywolf.fws.gov.

Get used to it! And get used to fewer elk to hunt. Enjoy!

Here is a true story about what really happened before the reintroduction, Cat, was the one who had video proof wolves were here and had actually never left Wyoming, only to be ignored, until Jerry Kyser shot one. But the feds had already proclaimed, "there are no wolves in Wyoming". I am sure her book is a good read.

Wyoming author gives account of wolves, issues
Sheep rancher finds early problems with wolves not 'fable'
By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff

In a discussion often dominated by interest groups and government agencies, Cat Urbigkit is hoping her voice will be heard.

Urbigkit, a Wyoming sheep rancher, dog breeder, former newspaper writer and blogger, has written the recently released book "Yellowstone Wolves: A Chronology of the Animal, the People, and the Politics."

Her insight is based on being on the front lines - from covering Yellowstone Park's wolf reintroduction as a reporter to fighting to protect her sheep from a wolf attack and sitting on the county board responsible for authorizing money to kill wolves.

"I started out as somewhat of a wolf advocate, but was very concerned about the reintroduction," Urbigkit, 42, said in a recent telephone interview. "My interest started out like many people in the West - I was interested in wildlife." In Urbigkit's neck of the woods, southwestern Wyoming's Sublette County, she heard stories from loggers, outfitters, hunters and others who claimed to have seen wolves in the backcountry and how special those encounters were because they were so rare.

"But I had people in environmental groups saying there are no wolves in Wyoming," she said.

Wolves were near extinction in Yellowstone by the 1940s, thanks to predator control that included poisoning, although a few sightings of lone wolves were sometimes reported. In September 1992, a wolf was shot outside the park's southern boundary. But attempts by biologists to locate any breeding wolf pairs were unsuccessful.

Urbigkit and her husband tried to halt Yellowstone's introduction of Canadian wolves by arguing that native wolves still existed in Wyoming. In her research into wolves, Urbigkit said, she found that Wyoming's native wolf was somewhat smaller than those transplanted to the park from Canada, more akin to the Mexican wolf.

"We lost that fight," she said. "We got stomped."

She equated the introduction of wolves to Wyoming to other agency decisions in which nonnatives were favored over natives, such as stocking nonnative rainbow trout in streams where native cutthroat once thrived. In the end, the nonnatives overran and outcompeted native fish.

"We do that without looking at the consequences," she said. "As a nation, we got involved in this grand experiment ... and we got duped in doing so."

Urbigkit's research through museum and natural resource records from the early 1900s also gave her a different view of wolves at the turn of the last century.

She found accounts from pioneers whose loved ones had died en route to Oregon. Some of the buried bodies were dug up and eaten by wolves in front of family members.

"They were evil personified," she said.

Early settlers living a hand-to-mouth existence could lose all their livestock in a single wolf attack.

"There were some real reasons people had problems with wolves, and it wasn't based on a childhood fable," she said.

Urbigkit has written children's books and plans to write more, but she felt she first needed to clear her head of the wolf issue.

"I write to think and I write to vent, and I was hoping this book would be closure for me," she said. "The story of the Wyoming native wolf finally is out there."

quote:

Originally posted by kudu56:
"There were some real reasons people had problems with wolves, and it wasn't based on a childhood fable," she said.

NAILED IT!!!

Even the most bleeding heart fanatic doesn't really want a wolf in their own backyard. But they ain't going to admit it.

this story reminds me of a story about a cougar being shot in georgia not too long ago. My thought is that anything out of place like that is immediately called feral because if they admit there's a wild population, they have to manage the animal and a big predator might cause a stir in the public, which doesn't want "a wolf in their back yard" so to speak.
http://www.gon.com/article.php?id=1787&cid=158

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No no no that wolf is just a figment of you imagination.

Why do so many US hunters get worked up about the wolves? When we talk about Africa, we expect the natives to tolerate the lions and elephants, to ensure hunting opportunities for future generations. Yet the same people cry "Foul!" when the discussions turns to reintroducing wolves in the US.

The difference I see is that the lions and elephants actually kill people and the wolf does not; it kill animals.

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that must mean
SHOOT
SHOVEL
SHUTUP

Have you heard the great news about the wolves living here in Wyoming. Apparently, the USFWS went into collar a small pack of five and all five wolves had mange...dead wolves.

It's kind of sad that a animal has to suffer such a bad death when a well placed bullet would do much better. If we could only do controlled hunts this type of death could be avoided.

*%*#@$* tree huggers just don't get it.

Steve
www.skymountainoutfitters.com

my big objection is that, there is a huntable population and the gubnment won't open a hunting season and let hunters control the population. I would happily pony up for a week long hunt!

quote:

Originally posted by kudu56:
Here is a true story about what really happened before the reintroduction, Cat, was the one who had video proof wolves were here and had actually never left Wyoming, only to be ignored, until Jerry Kyser shot one. But the feds had already proclaimed, "there are no wolves in Wyoming". I am sure her book is a good read.

“They’re doing genetic testing. Those results should be back in a week to 10 days,” Kevin said.

It took 17 years to get the genetic testing results back from Jerry's wolf. Wonder why they delayed it so long?

Wolves have been in Southern Colorado for a long time. Locals have known it for years.

And this is surprising to whom? Of course they will wander into Colorado and everywhere else there is big game to harass and kill. Wait till some show up next door to some of the California transplants and hear them whine then!

now colorado's black angus can look like wyoming's black angus.
photo is from a wolf attack on a friend of mines herd of registered angus xmas eve.
2 dead,3 more had to be put down.only 5 wolves involved.only 1 eaten on

Those wolves are hard on livestock and unlike lions, etc. often kill wantonly. They also run the elk, etc into the next state that they don't kill.