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In an interview in November, CPW told 9NEWS they would not take wolves from problem packs.
GRAND COUNTY, Colo. — Three of the five wolves released by Colorado Parks and Wildlife in Grand County this week came from packs that have killed livestock in Oregon this year, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife records.
The wolves were the first to be released under a voter-approved reintroduction program that was embraced by the state’s urban corridor but staunchly opposed in rural areas where ranchers worry about attacks on livestock.
RELATED: Colorado releases first 5 wolves in reintroduction plan approved by voters to chagrin of ranchers
In an interview Nov. 28, CPW told 9NEWS they would not take wolves from problem packs.
“That’s part of the consideration too, that we’re working with the state, with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, to identify the packs that are known depredators, where there’s really a chronic issue going on,” CPW Species Conservation Program Manager Eric Odell said. “We won’t take animals from those packs either, because we want to take animals that are trained on wild ungulates. That’s our hope that their primary prey is, so we’ll use the knowledge Oregon has collected over their years of monitoring of the tendencies of those packs.”
The wolves were all caught in Oregon on Sunday. They came from three different packs.
Two of the wolves came from a pack that killed one calf and injured two others in July, according to the records. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife authorized the killing of four wolves from that pack in August “in response to chronic depredation of livestock.”
One of the wolves came from a pack that killed a calf in September and a cow in October, according to the Oregon records.
CPW and Oregon Fish and Wildlife did not respond to requests for comment from 9NEWS on Thursday.
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