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Published on January 12, 2025
Colorado Teams Up With British Columbia for Gray Wolf Reintroduction EffortSource: Eric Kilby from Somerville, MA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) has embarked on a wildlife operation far north of its borders, reaching into the wilderness of British Columbia to capture gray wolves for reintroduction into Colorado's ecosystem. The initiative, as reported by 9News, kicked off this past Friday with an agreement that permits CPW to trap up to 15 wolves for relocation and release within Colorado's landscapes this year.

The operations, poised to bolster the numbers of Colorado's wolf population, are predicted to span a period of up to two weeks. British Columbia serves as a source population with roughly 8,500 wolves, although this count varies from year to year, Denver7 notes. Captured wolves will undergo a health examination, receive treatment if necessary, and be fitted with tracking collars before their journey to Colorado, to ensure both their well-being and the ability for researchers to monitor their integration into the wild.

Colorado's reintroduction of wolves comes amidst ongoing discussion and management of the complex relationship between wildlife and livestock. In a recent update, CPW released a "Wolf-Livestock Conflict Minimization Program Producer Guide," which details a definition of "chronic depredation," a reference to persistent livestock attacks by wolves, and outlined a set of actionable responses in such cases. According to The Colorado Sun, the guide also clarifies the circumstances under which a wolf might be lethally controlled but only after all other management strategies have been exhausted.

This second wave of wolf reintroduction by Colorado signifies a commitment to restoring a species that once roamed freely across the state. The collaboration with Canadian authorities suggests a recognition of wildlife conservation as a transnational effort, and the structured approach to managing potential wolf-livestock conflicts illustrates an evolving understanding of coexistence between human interests and the intrinsic value of wild predators in their natural environments.