Wolves in Colorado
Proposition 114, now state statute 33-2-105.8, passed on November 3, 2020. It directed the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to develop a plan to introduce and manage gray wolves in Colorado west of the Continental Divide no later than December 31, 2023. Ten wolves were reintroduced to the state in December, 2023 as part of this plan.
Wolves in Colorado
Proposition 114, now state statute 33-2-105.8, passed on November 3, 2020. It directed the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to develop a plan to introduce and manage gray wolves in Colorado west of the Continental Divide no later than December 31, 2023. Ten wolves were reintroduced to the state in December, 2023 as part of this plan.
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Wolf Management Plan
The primary goal of the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management plan is to identify the steps needed to recover and maintain a viable, self-sustaining wolf population in Colorado, while concurrently working to minimize wolf-related conflicts with domestic animals/livestock, other wildlife and people. Colorado Parks and Wildlife presented the draft plan to the Commission on December 9, 2022. The Commission passed the final plan on May 3, 2023.
Public Feedback
4,000
online comments collected in response to a draft plan posted on the website and at engagecpw.org
3,400
Coloradans submitted feedback during public meetings
232
people throughout the state made comments on the draft plan during statewide hearings
5
statewide hearings were held to acquire information from the public to be considered in developing the final plan between January 19 and February 22, 2023
Wolf Advisory Groups
CPW convened two groups to serve as advisory bodies to the agency as the Commission and staff work to develop the plan to restore and manage gray wolves in Colorado.
Stakeholder Advisory Group
The Stakeholder Advisory Group provided a range of viewpoints from diverse geographic areas of the state and proposed considerations for the plans developed by the Technical Working Group.
Find out moreTechnical Working Group
The Technical Working Group contributed expertise towards developing conservation objectives, management strategies, and damage prevention and compensation planning.
Find out moreWildlife Management
Managing Wolves in Colorado
Wolves will be managed within Colorado using a phased approach, based on the minimum number of animals known to be present in the state. These phases will correspond with the status of the species on the Colorado Threatened and Endangered Species list. There is no wolf population size objective in the final management and restoration plan.
CPW has been in communication with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) regarding wolf management from the outset of the restoration and management planning effort. USFWS was represented on the Technical Working Group assembled by CPW during the planning efforts for reintroducing the species.
In 2023, USFWS designated the Colorado wolf population as experimental under Section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act. This provides management flexibility to CPW that would otherwise be prohibited.
It is not a question of “want” or “don’t want.” With reintroduced populations becoming sustainable across the United States, including Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, many wildlife professionals believed it was only a matter of time before wolves naturally migrated back to Colorado, and CPW has been prepared for their arrival. Prior to reintroduction, wolves were occasionally detected in northern Colorado very close to the Wyoming border.
With Colorado voters electing to reintroduce additional wolves to the state, our team of biologists, researchers, wildlife officers and other staff worked with stakeholders statewide to create a plan that provides the best chance for the species to thrive in Colorado. This planning factored in the best available science regarding habitat and prey availability, and included input from the public and key stakeholders.
While the plan does not consider wolf hunting, the Stakeholder Advisory Group and the Technical Working Group did discuss hunting during the planning process. They concluded that, if wolf populations reach certain levels, a future Parks and Wildlife Commission with proper legal authority may seek to reclassify them as a game species. Wolves would also have to be removed from the Federal Endangered Species Act before hunting could be considered. This phase is not anticipated to take place until many years into the future, if at all.
After the final Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan was approved, the Parks and Wildlife Commission finalized regulation changes to Chapter W-10 (Nongame Wildlife) and Chapter W-17 (Damage Caused by Wildlife) to address the increased presence of wolves in Colorado.
Wolves are currently protected under both federal and state law as an endangered species.
For wolves to be downlisted from State Endangered (Phase 1) to State Threatened (Phase 2), CPW biologists must document a minimum wintertime count of 50 wolves anywhere in the state for four successive years. For wolves to be delisted from the State Threatened and Endangered species list and classified as delisted nongame (Phase 3), biologists must observe a minimum count of at least 150 wolves anywhere in Colorado for two successive years, or a minimum count of at least 200 wolves anywhere in Colorado, with no time requirement.
When future Commissions consider delisting, CPW will conduct a population viability analysis, or similar population modeling effort. This would assess the extinction probability of the wolf population in Colorado using Colorado-specific demographic parameters gained from research and from monitoring the population in the years between reintroduction and recovery.
Landowners
Managing Wolf Depredation
Landowners can be compensated for wolf attacks on livestock.
Managing Colorado Wildlife
How Wolves Impact Deer, Elk and Moose Populations
Wolves consume approximately 7-10 pounds of meat per day on average. In some other areas where wolves exist at a sustainable population level, there have been localized impacts to ungulate populations. Elk, moose and deer are primary prey species for wolves. However, wolves are opportunistic hunters. Wolf populations would need to be established for an extended period before we can evaluate the extent to which they impact populations of prey species in Colorado.
How Wolves Impact Mountain Lions, Bears, Coyotes and Foxes
Wolves have a tendency to displace other canids like coyotes and foxes, but not lions or bears.
Different combinations and densities of predator and prey species, terrain, vegetation, climate, land-ownership patterns and land uses result in different ecological relationships. It is difficult to predict how the interactions will play out. It is not common for wolves to prey on other carnivore species.
Colorado has the largest elk herd in the world. Does it matter if wolves eat a few?
The statewide elk population is stable, with 287,000 individuals according to a 2018 estimate. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has intentionally reduced some elk populations to achieve objectives set for those herds. Currently, 22 of 42 (52%) elk herds are still above their current population objective ranges. However, some herds remain below the established population objective. Public perception of the desired number of elk in Colorado varies. Ongoing research is necessary to determine necessary management changes, such as recent reductions in cow elk hunting licenses to address low calf production in many herds.
As wolves become more established on the landscape, CPW will adjust its research and management efforts to address these questions.
Elk and deer herds are struggling in areas, and the agency is doing research to understand why. How would wolves play into that?
Wolves are one of many factors that may influence ungulate population dynamics. It is impossible to predict precisely how wolves would impact Colorado ungulate populations on either a local, regional or statewide scale. Mule deer populations in portions of western Colorado have declined significantly for reasons unrelated to wolves, causing concerns within CPW and its many constituencies who depend upon or enjoy mule deer. Recognizing the need for action, CPW embarked on a comprehensive public engagement effort to gather input for developing the West Slope Mule Deer Strategy to guide future management actions.
If impacts to deer and elk are noticed at a high enough level, how will wolves be managed to mitigate those impacts?
All consideration for impacts to wildlife populations will help inform the range of management options for wolves in Colorado. Wolves will be one of many factors that may influence ungulate population dynamics. As wolves become more established on the landscape, CPW will adjust its research and management efforts to address these questions.
Status of Colorado's Deer, Elk and Moose Populations
Are wolves more likely to increase or decrease the severity of chronic wasting disease in Colorado?
Until recently, wolves and chronic wasting disease in the United States rarely overlapped geographically, so the interaction between them has not been well studied. It is not possible to say with certainty how much wolves might reduce – or fail to reduce – the prevalence of the disease in specific areas of Colorado.
Beneficial effects have been suggested by modeling, but have yet to be demonstrated. If wolves selectively killed an adequate number of infected animals, then this would help suppress the disease. We know that infected deer and elk are more vulnerable to predation (including nonhuman and human hunting “predation”) than healthy animals. We also know that managed hunting and selective culling can reduce the prevalence of disease. But we don’t know whether wolves would be sufficiently abundant to measurably suppress the disease. Mountain lions selectively kill infected deer, yet their presence has not prevented increases in prevalence in some areas. Even if wolves do not selectively kill infected animals, it is possible that predation or scavenging by wolves could help reduce environmental contamination with the prion that causes chronic wasting disease, thus potentially reducing prevalence.
Studies have shown that passing infected elk brain tissue through the coyote digestive tract reduced the amount of prions available to cause infection. Whether wolves would also reduce the prion load in carcass tissues they consume has not been studied. Nor can we evaluate the extent to which wolves, through extensive landscape movement, could introduce prions to areas where the disease is not known to exist, and if they do, to what extent that poses a risk of increased disease distribution or prevalence.
While predation will not eliminate the disease from deer or elk populations, predators that selectively prey on infected animals would be expected to reduce the number of infections. This would be more likely in areas where wolves are well established.
While reducing the prevalence of CWD is an important and achievable objective, we don’t believe it is feasible for it to be eliminated from Colorado.
Resources
What impacts have states with wolves witnessed and how have those impacts been handled?
Other states have noted that both big-game distribution and habitat use can be impacted by wolves. From Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks:
“How much, where, and how wolves impact prey varies through space and time. Wolves – like mountain lions, coyotes and bears – eat deer, elk, moose and other game animals. Research in Montana and elsewhere has shown that predation may influence deer, elk and moose populations through changes in the survival of young and adult animals or a combination of both. In Montana, elk numbers in some areas have declined, due in part to wolf predation. Yet in other areas where wolves and elk interact, elk numbers are stable or increasing. Habitat, weather patterns, human hunting, the presence of other large predators in the same area and the presence of livestock seasonally or year-round are important factors, too. Wolf predation by itself does not initiate declines in prey populations, but it can exacerbate declines or lengthen periods of prey population rebounds. Research in Yellowstone National Park and elsewhere has shown that elk use habitats differently since wolves have returned. One study showed that when wolves are in the local area, elk spend less time in open areas and more time in forested areas. However, extrapolation of this potential effect to broad landscapes should not be made. Hunters may need to adjust their strategies in areas where wolves exist.”
There have been a lot of studies about how wolves impacted ecosystems in other parts of the country. What will that look like in Colorado?
It's difficult to take results from studies in other locations and assume they will apply in Colorado. Wolf reintroduction in Colorado will create a unique opportunity for a wealth of research on how wolves may navigate more populated areas, how the species adapts to the effects of a changing climate, and how they may play a role in Colorado’s ecosystems, such as the potential to help control disease in prey populations.
Resources
- Alaska Game and Fish Wolf Management and Reports
- Department of the Interior
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Wolf Management
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife Wolf Management
- Wolves in Idaho
- Wolves in Michigan
- Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Wolf Management
- Montana Game, Fish and Parks Wolf Conservation and Management
- Wolves in Oregon
- Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Wolf Conservation and Management
- Wolves in Wisconsin
- Wolves in Wyoming
Featured Resource
Wolf-Livestock Conflict Minimization Program Guide
The Wolf-Livestock Conflict Minimization Program Guide provides information on a variety of tools and methods available for livestock producers to employ in efforts to reduce the likelihood of wolf-livestock conflicts and establishes a framework for CPW’s response, along with available support from other state, federal and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).