Gray wolves traveling: Colorado wildlife officials release latest GPS tracking data

• By Jonathan Ingraham jonathan.ingraham@denvergazette.com from: Colorado Politics Mar 27, 2024 Updated Mar 28, 2024

No wolf mortalities and no reported livestock depredation in the last 30 days have been reported by officials with Colorado Parks and Wildlife as the agency continues to track gray wolves in Colorado.

The updated map published Wednesday on CPW’s website continues informing the public, recreationists, and livestock producers on where collared wolves have been in the past month.

• Collared activity from Feb. 28 to March 25 shows gray wolves have crossed US Highway 40 east of Winter Park and Granby, but not over the Continental Divide.

• Collared activity shows wolves have wandered west of CO Highway 14 in North Park into the Park Range east of Steamboat Springs, Colorado as well.

• Collared activity also shows wolves reaching farther west nearing the Utah/Colorado border throughout much of Rio Blanco and northern Garfield counties, north of Glenwood Springs and Rifle.

• One of the collars placed on a wolf translocated from Oregon is no longer providing signals to CPW biologists. The animal with the failed collar is traveling with another animal with a functional collar, which currently allows CPW to monitor that animal. CPW has confirmed that the animal with the malfunctioning collar is still alive based on visual confirmation from an airplane.

• A collar on another wolf has been identified as partially functional and may not be fully functional in the near future.

"This map depicts watersheds where collared wolves in Colorado have been for the last 30 days. A watershed is a geographic unit that drains water into a specific water body.

CPW each month releases an updated map that shows the collared gray wolves' movements over the last 30 days.

Wildlife officials said they reserve the right to "buffer" the wolves' locations on the map if it means protecting the wolves' safety.

CPW said the accuracy of the map will diminish over time as the animals breed in the wild and as other uncollared wolves potentially move into the area from other states.