{"id":567828,"date":"2026-02-05T10:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/567828\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:05:10","slug":"wolf-dies-in-colorado-during-capture-collaring-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/567828\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolf dies in Colorado during capture, collaring operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 3-year-old gray wolf died last week in northwestern Colorado after an attempt by state wildlife officers to capture it during a collaring operation.<\/p>\n

The breeding male was part of the King Mountain Pack, one of four known wolf packs in the state, according to a\u00a0news release from Colorado Parks and Wildlife<\/a>. The pack formed last spring in Routt County.<\/p>\n

CPW officials decided Tuesday to pause wolf capture operations while the agency evaluates the death.<\/p>\n

This is the second confirmed wolf death in Colorado this year. The first was a female gray wolf in northwest Colorado<\/a> on Jan. 16, according to the agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State wildlife officials try to keep at least two members of each wolf pack collared as part of Colorado\u2019s wolf reintroduction plan, according to the release. Doing so allows officials to monitor their movements across the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CPW staff members recently noticed that the batteries of the collars on the adult wolves in the King Mountain Pack were running low and launched the January operation to replace them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll wildlife capture operations come with a risk,\u201d Laura Clellan, the agency\u2019s acting director, said in the release. \u201cWhile we meticulously prepare and take every precaution to ensure a positive outcome, there is always the possibility, even if small, that the worst happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese sorts of capture efforts are a routine part of CPW\u2019s wolf monitoring efforts and the program has had very successful capture operations up to this point,\u201d Clellan continued.<\/p>\n

She said state wildlife officers and contractors carefully followed guidelines from the agency\u2019s animal care and use committee when capturing the wolf on Jan. 28, but the animal was unresponsive after capture.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team initiated resuscitation efforts but determined the animal had died,\u201d Clellan said.<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis video still from a remote camera video shows a wolf pup from the King Mountain Pack and was taken in Routt County during the summer of 2025. At least four pups were born to the pack in 2025. (Video still via Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/p>\n

Results from lab tests and a necropsy \u2014 an animal autopsy \u2014 performed at the agency\u2019s lab in Fort Collins were pending on Wednesday. Those results will help determine if any underlying conditions contributed to the wolf\u2019s death, according to the release.<\/p>\n

A female adult wolf and a pup were both successfully captured and collared during last week\u2019s operation, according to the release. All four of the pack\u2019s known pups were spotted in the wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not yet possible to understand the long term implications to the King Mountain Pack as a result of this mortality,\u201d Wolf Conservation Program Manager Eric Odell said in the release. \u201cWe will continue to monitor this pack to evaluate their status and how they are contributing to the establishment of a self-sustaining wolf population in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state now has 18 collared wolves, plus others without collars including an unknown number of pups across all the packs.<\/p>\n

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 3-year-old gray wolf died last week in northwestern Colorado after an attempt by state wildlife officers to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":125277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[4439,9577,9560,4788,4446,746,9565,1370,9574,50,192544,159,67,132,68,837,9571],"class_list":["post-567828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-news","tag-colorado-parks-and-wildlife","tag-conservation","tag-death","tag-environment","tag-gray-wolf","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mountains","tag-news","tag-routt-county","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wildlife","tag-wolves"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116017464856320731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}