For Immediate Release: September 9, 2024
Contact:
Delaney Rudy, Western Watersheds Project, 970-648-4241, delaney@westernwatersheds.org
Chris Smith, WildEarth Guardians, 505-395-6177, csmith@wildearthguardians.org
Young wolf family was implicated in livestock losses as coexistence measures were late and incomplete
DENVER — Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Monday afternoon that the entire Copper Creek Wolf Pack has been captured, but the male wolf father, 2309-OR, was captured on Friday, August 30 and died on Tuesday, September 3. The family, including four puppies, is the first successful breeding pack of the state’s reintroduction effort. The agency’s press release did not include information about how the deceased wolf was so badly harmed before capture but noted he was nearly 30% underweight.
“We are devastated by the news of the dead father wolf, and must be sure that in the future, Colorado’s wolves are not set up for conflict and therefore removal,” said Delaney Rudy, Colorado Director of Western Watersheds Project. “Tools for nonlethal coexistence have been provided cost-free to ranchers along the way, and wolves should not have to pay the price for producers’ refusal to implement them.”
The Copper Creek Pack was implicated in a number of livestock losses, but coexistence measures were not implemented in a timely manner. Despite Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Colorado Department of Agriculture efforts, the livestock owner whose livestock were killed refused timely implementation of science-backed coexistence tools, including a range rider, fladry, diversionary feeding, and nonlethal injurious hazing permit. The agency also acknowledged that the wolves may have been lured to the property when the rancher refused to bury their carcasses in an open pit.
“For Colorado’s first re-introduced wolf pack to be taken off the landscape is a real setback for the restoration effort that Colorado voters chose,” said Chris Smith, wildlife program director at WildEarth Guardians. “CPW staff appear to have done what they could to mitigate this situation, but it seems that not everyone was invested in coexistence. The death of a wolf is a terrible tragedy.”
“The remainder of the Copper Creek family should be translocated back to the wild as soon as possible into deep country where livestock coexistence is prioritized from the get-go, and range riders are on the ground,” said Delaney Rudy. “It isn’t fair that these highly-social animals have had their family disrupted by ineffective coexistence practices.”
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