{"id":24106,"date":"2025-01-06T17:54:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T00:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/feds-investigate-illegal-killing-of-reintroduced-colorado-wolf\/"},"modified":"2025-01-07T00:54:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T00:54:37","slug":"feds-investigate-illegal-killing-of-reintroduced-colorado-wolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/feds-investigate-illegal-killing-of-reintroduced-colorado-wolf\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds investigate \u2018illegal killing\u2019 of reintroduced Colorado wolf"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Colorado\u2019s
Colorado\u2019s reintroduced gray wolf population is protected under the Endangered Species Act, making it illegal to harass, harm, or kill them in most circumstances. (Eric Cole\/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Federal wildlife officials announced Thursday they are seeking information related to what they called the illegal killing of a gray wolf reintroduced to Colorado as part of the state\u2019s voter-mandated restoration program.<\/p>\n

The wolf, an adult male known as 2309-OR, was captured in August as part of the Copper Creek pack, which was rounded up by state wildlife officials following a series of attacks on livestock in Grand County. Several days later, the wolf died in captivity from preexisting injuries \u201cunrelated to the capture,\u201d state officials said at the time.<\/p>\n

Officials ordered a necropsy, which subsequently \u201crevealed that a gunshot wound initiated the poor condition of the wolf and ultimately led to the cause of death,\u201d the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a press release Thursday.<\/p>\n

The USFWS investigation is the first of its kind following the first release of 10 wolves captured in Oregon in Grand and Summit counties in December 2023. The releases marked the beginning of Colorado\u2019s gray wolf reintroduction program, managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife pursuant to a ballot initiative narrowly approved by voters in 2020.<\/p>\n

Though the program mandates compensation for livestock lost to wolf predation, it has been bitterly opposed by Colorado ranchers. The capture of the Copper Creek pack followed the loss of at least nine cattle and 15 sheep in and around Grand County in 2024, though industry groups claim that their \u201cundocumented losses\u201d are higher.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s reintroduced gray wolf population is protected under the Endangered Species Act, making it illegal to harass, harm, or kill them in most circumstances. The USFWS said it\u2019s offering an unspecified \u201cmonetary reward\u201d for information about 2309-OR\u2019s killing. Tips can be submitted by calling 1-844-FWS-TIPS (397-8477), by sending an email to FWS_TIPS@fws.gov<\/a>, or by visiting the agency\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Wildlife advocates previously launched an antipoaching reward of up to $50,000 for \u201cinformation leading to formal charges against anyone who illegally kills a wolf in Colorado.\u201d A second reintroduced wolf, known as 2307-OR, died in Grand County as a result of a fight with another wolf, but USFWS necropsy also found the animal had an \u201cold, healed gunshot wound to its rear leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

The USFWS investigation comes as the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission is set to weigh a request from livestock industry groups to \u201cpause\u201d the wolf reintroduction program. The commission\u2019s 11 voting members will take up the petition at its Jan. 8 meeting; agency staff have formally recommended denying the petition and proceeding with the release of another 10 to 15 wolves sourced from Canada this winter.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife declined to comment Thursday, referring questions about the investigation to USFWS representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, this illegal activity illustrates why Colorado must proceed apace with releasing more wolves over the coming months and years,\u201d the group Rocky Mountain Wolf Project said in a press release Thursday. \u201cWe must ensure the success of our wolf restoration program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Newsline <\/a>is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Necropsy reveals \u2018gunshot wound \u2026 led to the cause of death\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24106"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}