After one of Colorado’s gray wolves wandered into New Mexico, wildlife officials captured it and rereleased it Thursday in Grand County.
The wolf’s capture was part of a multistate agreement, under Colorado’s wolf introduction effort, where the bordering states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah agree to help return any wolves that leave the state to protect recovery efforts of the Mexican wolf, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a statement Friday.
The male wolf, originally from British Columbia, was part of a group that Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials released in Eagle and Pitkin counties last year. After the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish captured the wolf, Colorado officials decided to rerelease it in Grand County.
“Gray wolf 2403 has been returned to Colorado and released in a location where it can best contribute to CPW’s efforts to establish a self-sustaining wolf population while concurrently attempting to minimize potential wolf-related livestock conflicts,” Acting CPW Director Laura Clellan said in a statement.
Officials declined to release more specific details on the location, but said CPW staff considered several factors in what they said was the “most appropriate release location in this unusual instance,” including nearby natural prey populations and distance from livestock.
CPW staff also considered the proximity to an unpaired female gray wolf in an effort to support pairing, the agency said.
Since voters approved Colorado’s wolf reintroduction effort in 2020, the program has been plagued with problems, most notably with wolves in Grand County repeatedly attacking livestock.
Several Grand County ranchers have received almost $450,000 in compensation for animals lost to wolves last year.
Wildlife officials said they captured the wolf not because it had caused problems or attacked other animals, but to protect the integrity of the Mexican wolf recovery program, CPW said.
After the Mexican wolf was listed as endangered in 1976, a binational captive breeding program was initiated to save it from extinction, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1998, the service released the first captive Mexican wolves into an area known as the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area, which spans 98 million acres across New Mexico and Arizona.
Under the multistate agreement, any Mexican wolves that leave that area within Arizona and New Mexico will also be relocated back.
“This MOU is a demonstration of the proactive steps CPW and neighboring state wildlife agencies took during our planning and implementation processes,” Eric Odell, CPW’s wolf conservation program manager, said in a statement.
“Ultimately, the intent is to aid with the success of our program here in Colorado while minimizing any adverse impacts on Mexican wolf recovery efforts in our neighboring states.”
Meanwhile, three of Colorado’s reintroduced wolves that wandered into Wyoming have been killed. Wolves are considered predators in Wyoming and are only protected in the state’s two national parks, Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
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