A Grand County, Colorado, ranch family is on high alert after they discovered a wolf had been hiding just yards away from their two children and their sheep.
“There would have been no good options” if they wolf had gone for the sheep, Jani Phillips Wood told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
Like many residents in the northern Colorado county, the Wood family braced for predator activity after Colorado Parks and Wildlife released 10 wolves last December, initiating the Centennial State’s wolf reintroduction problem.
But knowing that a wolf was so close and potentially stalking her children has ratcheted up the stakes for Wood. They got a photo of the predator watching from a short distance as the kids worked with their sheep.
“None of us want to break the law, but the laws aren’t protecting us at this point,” she said about shooting wolves, which is illegal in Colorado.
Didn’t Know Wolf Was There
Wood’s 10-year-old son, who goes by his nickname “Critter,” and his sister Carly, 12, frequently lead livestock around their property.
Early Thursday, the children tethered a few 4-H lambs to an ATV and took the sheep for a walk on a hillside just west of the family’s house.
A short while later, Wood said she saw some movement out of the corner of her eye. Then she spotted a wolf, right where the children had just been.
The children had no clue that the wolf was there, Wood said. It apparently had been hunkered down in a dry creek bed next to the trail on which Critter and Carly had been driving the ATV.
If the wolf had decided to go after the lambs, things likely would have ended badly, Wood said.
“If they had tried racing away from the wolf, they would have been dragging the sheep,” she said. “They would have had to stop to untie the sheep and then raced away on the quad.
“Or, they might have just abandoned the quad and taken off on foot. But running away from a predator on foot is never a good idea.”
This wolf came within 15-20 yards of two children and their sheep on the Wood family ranch in Grand County, Colorado. (Courtesy Jani Phillips Wood) 
The Wood children in Grand County, Colorado frequently take their 4-H sheep for walks by tethering them to an ATV. There were on such a walk on Thursday when the passed right by where a wolf was hiding. (Courtesy Jani Phillips Wood) 
The Wood family ranch in Grand County, Colorado, sits near other ranches and a residential subdivision. There’s been wolf activity in the area, and a wolf den with pups is thought to be nearby. (Courtesy Jani Phillips Wood)
Grand County Is Wolf Central
Leading up to the release of the wolves, Colorado Parks and Wildlife stated that release sites would be at least 60 miles from the Wyoming state line, the Utah state line or sovereign Native American tribal lands.
Wood said her family’s property is “right at that 60-mile buffer zone mark” from the Wyoming state line.
Most of the confirmed cases of wolves killing livestock since the reintroduction have been in Grand County.
Her family hasn’t lost any livestock to wolves yet, but a neighbor’s property has been one of the hardest-hit, Wood said.
There’s also a growing residential subdivision nearby, she added.
Using Ditches For Cover
The wolves in Grand County have figured out how to use irrigation ditches and dry creek beds as cover, Wood said.
The wolves apparently use dry ditches as travel routes, so they can move about the area without being seen.
“They’re incredibly intelligent animals,” she said.
The Wood family has set up trail cameras that are triggered to snap photos when they detect movement to help keep track wolves. And many of their neighbors has done the same.
“It’s neighbors help each other, so that we can keep each other informed about wolf activity,” Wood said.
Wolf Might Have Come From Pup Den
The wolf that was on the Woods’ property might have come from a den with at least one pup.
CPW reported last month that at a pup had been confirmed at that den, which Wood said is about 10 miles from her family’s place.
She said that a local CPW agent told her that the wolf she spotted might have been the female from that den.
Wood said she values her children living a rural lifestyle, which includes going out on their own to care for livestock. Now, she and her husband are concerned for their safety and are unsure what to do.
CPW can provide them with nonlethal “rubber bullets” to shoot at wolves if need be, or “cracker shells” to frighten wolves away, she said.
Cracker shells are fired with a shotgun and expel a small explosive charge that bursts in mid-air.
Colorado ranchers can shoot to kill at wolves that they catch in the act of trying to kill livestock.
But Wood said that, at least for now, her family is hesitant to bring live, lethal rounds into play.
If they killed a wolf on their property, proving beyond any doubt that it was done to stop a direct attack could prove difficult she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
