Wolves remain a divisive topic in Colorado, and a bullet wound recently found on a dead wolf has sparked speculation over whether anti-wolf Coloradans have taken it to the level of shooting at them.
The bullet wasn’t what killed the wolf, which was found dead in Grand County, Colorado, in September.
The injury was on one of the animal’s legs, was old and healed over, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which this week released preliminary results of a necropsy of the wolf’s carcass.
What killed the wolf was almost certainly another wolf or wolves, according to FWS.
That should come as no big surprise, as wolves are known to sometimes fight to the death in territorial disputes.
Are Coloradans Angry Enough To Shoot?
But the wolf’s bullet wound raises the question if somebody in Colorado had previously tried to illegally kill it.
“I know people are angry about wolves. A wolf was already shot in that general vicinity some years ago,” said Colorado resident Matt Barnes, a range scientist who has worked on wolf and grizzly bear conflict mitigation on ranches in Wyoming and Montana.
He was referring to an incident in 2015, when a hunter shot and killed a wolf north of Kremmling. The hunter claimed to have thought the animal he shot was a coyote, but DNA testing later proved it was a wolf, according to reports from the time.
Wolves weren’t deliberately reintroduced to Colorado until late 2023. But there are accounts and reported sightings of wolves in Colorado going back many years. Some of those might have been wolves that wandered across the state line from Wyoming.
Was It Shot In Oregon?
It’s probably best to not let speculation about the wolf’s shooting run wild too early, Barnes told Cowboy State Daily.
FWS released only the preliminary results of the necropsy, which didn’t go into such details as how old the wound might have been or what caliber of bullet had inflicted it.
“They (FWS) were sufficiently vague enough about it, I would caution anybody against reading too much into it,” Barnes said.
The dead animal was among 10 wolves captured in Oregon and released in Colorado in December 2023, so it’s entirely possible that the wolf was actually shot in Oregon, Barnes said.
Colorado resident John Michael Williams runs the Colorado Wolf Tracker Facebook page, which was become a virtual town square for discussion and debate about wolves.
He told Cowboy State Daily that the discovery of the bullet wound has touched off a flurry of discussion and speculation.
People on his forum have also been wondering if the wolf was shot in Colorado, or back in Oregon, Willaims said.
How Big A Bullet?
And they wonder about what time of firearm it was shot with.
“It was probably a small-caliber bullet, like a .22,” he said. “Because a wolf got shot with a bigger bullet, something you’d hunt with – like a .30-06 or a .300 Winchester Magnum – it wouldn’t recover.”
Wolves are mostly protected in Colorado. In August, state officials decided to allow ranchers there to shoot wolves, but only if they caught wolves in the act of trying to kill livestock.
However, the wolf in question was likely spotted with a visible limp as far back as May, Williams said. So, if that’s true and it was shot in Colorado, that would mean the wolf was shot illegally.
A more comprehensive FWS report is expected soon, and it might clear up some of those questions, he added.
Wolves Headed South
Meanwhile, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department (CPW) reported that wolves had been confirmed south of Interstate 70 in Colorado for the first time since the reintroductions began.
The remote county south of I-70 is where many in Colorado favored the wolves being introduced to in the first place, Williams said. Instead, they were released much farther north in Grand County, Colorado.
CPW is also on track with plans to bring in up to 15 more wolves either by the end of the year or in early 2025. It’s not certain where those wolves will be released.
Plans are to trap the wolves in British Columbia, Canada, and transport them to Colorado for release.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
