For the third time this year, a wolf transplanted to Colorado wandered across the state line into Wyoming and died, though the wolf\u2019s death wasn\u2019t officially announced until nearly two weeks later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) learned on July 24 that wolf 2304, a female, had died in Wyoming, CPW announced in a statement released Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CPW and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department didn\u2019t release any details regarding where in Wyoming the wolf died or\u00a0its cause of death.<\/p>\n
\u201cCPW has now coordinated with Wyoming Game and Fish for the return of its tracking collar; however, Wyoming state law prevents further detail from being shared,\u201d according to the CPW statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Game and Fish stated that, \u201cPer Wyoming Statute 23-1-304 (d)(vi), Game and Fish is only able to release aggregate numbers of legally\u00a0taken wolves, and we cannot provide further details.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolves remain protected in Colorado and may not be legally hunted there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the part of Wyoming along the Colorado state line, wolves are classified as a predatory animal. That means they\u00a0may\u00a0be killed on sight at any time, with no hunting license required.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Female Wolf Among Oregon Transplants<\/strong><\/p>\n The first case of a reintroduced Colorado wolf dying in Wyoming was March 15. That wolf, a male, was reported to have been killed by\u00a0USDA Wildlife Services agents\u00a0after it killed sheep in northcentral Wyoming.\u00a0<\/p>\n In April,\u00a0another male wolf<\/a>\u00a0from Colorado was reported to have died in Wyoming, although no official cause of death was released.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both of those males were among 15 wolves flown in from\u00a0British, Columbia, Canada, and released in Colorado in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n The female that died in July in Wyoming was from the first batch of 10 wolves reintroduced into Colorado from Oregon in December 2023. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Trying To Go Home\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Colorado resident John Michael\u00a0Williams\u00a0runs the\u00a0Colorado Wolf Tracker<\/a>\u00a0Facebook\u00a0page, and said that as he sees it,\u00a0wolves crossing into Wyoming and dying\u00a0are\u00a0an inevitable consequence of the animals\u2019 natural urge to wander.<\/p>\n A female wolf from the Canadian batch recently\u00a0logged 1,230 miles<\/a>\u00a0in her wanderings across Colorado.\u00a0<\/p>\n CPW\u2019s reintroduction policy includes releasing wolves with at least a 60-mile buffer zone between the release sites and state lines.\u00a0Also,\u00a0from the borders of some Native American tribal lands where tribes have stated they don\u2019t want wolves.\u00a0<\/p>\n Williams told Cowboy State Daily that wolves can easily travel 60 miles, so he doubts the effectiveness of the buffer zones.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also speculated whether some of the wolves leaving Colorado are trying to find their way back to where they originally came from.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing these things trying to go home, which is kind of sad,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Proving The Point Of Judge\u2019s Ruling<\/strong><\/p>\n Another Colorado resident, Samanta Miller, said that Colorado wolves dying in Wyoming proves the point of a federal judge\u2019s\u00a0Tuesday\u00a0ruling on wolf policy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) broke the law last year when it denied a petition from a coalition of environmental and animal welfare groups calling for wolves to be re-listed as an endangered species, according to a ruling from Judge Donald Molloy in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in Missoula.<\/p>\n Molloy also ordered FWS to reconsider its wolf policy in Western\u00a0states.\u00a0<\/p>\n That could possibly open the door to wolves being placed back under federal endangered species protection in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Miller is the senior carnivore campaigner with the Center of Biological Diversity, one of the groups that filed the petition, as well as a subsequent lawsuit that led to Molloy\u2019s ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n Miller told Cowboy State Daily that yet another Colorado wolf dying in Wyoming \u201cvalidates the legal victory we recently had.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s more proof that some states are overly aggressive in their wolf management policies, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is statewide persecution of wolves in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. And in Wyoming, it\u2019s been especially precarious for Colorado\u2019s wolf recovery program,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n