Colorado’s next 15 wolves will come to Eagle, Pitkin and Garfield counties in the next two weeks
There is speculation that some wolves are already in the state.
Colorado’s next wolves come from British Columbia. Some reports suggest the first of the transplants may already be in the state.
Farmers and ranchers are paid for the production that brings wolves back to Colorado, but they can seek damages.
On Saturday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife issued a press release stating that capture and release operations would take place to another 15 wolves from Canada started Friday and would last up to two weeks.
The next day, reports surfaced that a plane leaving Prince George, British Columbia, with wolves on board landed at the Eagle County Regional Airport in Gypsum.
Parks and Wildlife would neither confirm nor deny that the next wolves to be reintroduced are already in Colorado, nor that the flight has anything to do with wolf recovery.
“Due to the complexity of the operation and to ensure the safety of our staff and animals, (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) will not be sharing any wolf release details while the operation is underway,” said Bridget O’Rourke, the agency’s statewide audience. information officer, said in a statement:
Reports of the possible arrival of wolves surfaced Sunday on the Colorado Wolf Tracker Facebook page, which has been tracking possible wolf flights over the past week. The plane that landed in Eagle County Sunday afternoon was identified as an aircraft from LightHawk Conservation Flying’s fleet. LightHawk is a Grand Junction-based nonprofit organization flew the transport flights during Parks and Wildlife’s final efforts to relocate wolves in December 2023. According to a flight trackerthe plane flew directly from British Columbia to Gypsum.
The tracker showed the plan
In Saturday’s announcement, Parks and Wildlife stated that once the wolves were captured in British Columbia, they would be examined and treated for any diseases and infections detected at their capture location. From there, the wolves must be collared and transported via crates by plane to Colorado.
The release notes that “wolves will be released at select locations in Colorado as soon as possible once they arrive to minimize stress to the animals.”
All ten wolves brought from Oregon in 2023 were released in Colorado the day after their capture. This operation involved three separate flights of nine wolves, with the last wolf transported by car. The entire operation lasted five days, from the first capture on December 17 to the final release on December 22.
Ahead of the latest planned releases, Parks and Wildlife identified that it was considering potential release locations Eagle, PitkinAnd Garfield provinces for these next 15 wolves. In December and January, it held community meetings in each of these provinces to discuss what these releases could mean.
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News,click here)