At least one wolf tromped through watersheds west of metro Denver in December, a new map released Tuesday by state wildlife officials shows.
The wolf or wolves moved through watersheds that cover areas of Gilpin, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife monthly map identifies watersheds where at least one wolf was present at some point between Nov. 25 and Friday.
None of the wolves have spent time near urban areas, CPW officials said Tuesday in a news release.
Wolves also roamed through the state’s northern mountains around Walden and Steamboat as well as the central mountains around Fairplay, Leadville and Aspen. Other wolves stayed farther south and wandered through watersheds between Alamosa and Gunnison.
Earlier this month, biologists with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish captured a Colorado wolf that traveled into their state, and CPW rereleased it in Grand County. Colorado maintains agreements with New Mexico, Arizona and Utah that require that any Colorado wolf that enters those states be captured and returned.
Some of the state’s known packs have developed territories and have stopped ranging as widely as before, CPW officials said in Tuesday’s release.
Twenty collared wolves currently roam Colorado, and at least 10 pups were born this summer in the state’s four packs.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife plans to release up to 15 more wolves this winter, but the agency has not yet announced whether it has found a state, country or tribe willing to supply the canines. The state agency planned to again source the wolves from Canada until the Trump administration threatened in November that doing so would be illegal.
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