GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The latest data on Colorado's wolf program, including the makeup of the packs and latest on conflict minimization efforts, was shared by leaders in the program on Thursday morning.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) released its Gray Wolf Annual Report for the biological year, which ran April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026, on Thursday during a presentation to the CPW Commission. Nine people who are heavily involved in the wolf program provided updates, which ranged from the latest on the packs to field research to non-lethal tool use.
It is the third report of its kind.
Denver7 listened to the discussion on Thursday and combed through the 12-page document. Below is a summary of those.
Status of Colorado's four wolf packs
In July 2025, CPW announced that three new wolf packs had formed the previous spring, in addition to the already-established Copper Creek Pack. Wolf Monitoring Data Coordinator Brenna Cassidy presented the most up-to-date data on those animals on Thursday.
The minimum count of wolves in Colorado for the last biological year was 32, she said. Of those, 18 are adults and 14 are pups, which were all born in April 2025. Twenty-four of the total wolves are in packs and the other eight are moving around solo.
The breakdown of those animals between the four packs is below. Cassidy warned that these numbers may be outdated moving forward based on moralities and wolves traveling into Colorado from other states.
Reproduction helped "somewhat compensate" for adult wolf deaths, Cassidy added, though the overall number of wolves remains low.
All four packs had pups in the spring of 2025.
“Pup survival seems to be relatively high," Cassidy said. "We had a high count of 17 pups throughout the year and we know that 14 of them were still alive at the end of the biological year."
In the last biological year, Colorado saw 10 known wolf deaths. Of those, three were in packs and seven were dispersing around the state solo. One wolf died of natural causes — a mountain lion encounter over a moose carcass — six died of known anthropogenic causes, and three deaths remain under investigation.
Wild wolves typically only live three to four years, and those that travel solo are more likely to die, Cassidy said.
"With those two pieces of knowledge, it’s not altogether surprising that the annual survival of wolves in Colorado last year was 61%," she said. "This is a very modest amount of data, so I caution making broad generalizations about the status of survival within this new population."
The below list outlines an overview of the known wolf population in Colorado:
- Four wolves surviving from the original 10 that were released in December 2023 (one died of a likely mountain lion attack, a second died from injuries sustained prior to his capture as part of the Copper Creek Pack relocation effort, a third wolf became sickly and died, a fourth died in Wyoming, a fifth died during a re-collaring operation in February 2026, and a sixth died in northwest Colorado the following month)
- Three wolves surviving of the five wolf pups born in the spring of 2024 (one male was killed by CPW after multiple depredations in Pitkin County and a second male was shot for the same reasons in September 2025)
- Eight wolves surviving from the 15 that were released in January 2025 (one was shot and killed by Wildlife Services in Wyoming, a second died of unknown causes in Wyoming, a third died in Rocky Mountain National Park, a fourth died in northwest Colorado and the fifth died in northwest Colorado after it was likely hit by a car, a sixth died in southwestern Colorado, and a seventh died in northwest Colorado)
- At least 14 pups born in four packs in 2025: Two in the Copper Creek Pack, four in the King Mountain Pack, five in the One Ear Pack and three in the Three Ccreeks Pack
- Two uncollared wolves that moved south from Wyoming several years ago and have been reported in and out of North Park. It is not clear if they are alive or still in the state.
The four packs have generally stayed in Colorado's northwest quadrant, as was expected, she said.
CPW published the below map showing the distribution over the biological year.
“As packs are established and territories developed, we are able to gain and share more insight into Colorado’s gray wolf population,” Cassidy said. “There will always be wolves who are not part of packs, and in the future there are likely to be uncollared wolves. As the population expands CPW will aim to maintain two GPS collars in each established pack to help track pack activity and territory as outlined in the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan.”
Summary of conflicts in the past year and the latest on conflict minimization
Wildlife Damage Specialist Ethan Kohn, based in Glenwood Springs, detailed two conflicts that the agency had to navigate in 2025.
One involved the Copper Creek Pack, which was captured after multiple depredations in Grand County and re-released in Pitkin and Eagle counties in January 2025.
WATCH: In early July 2025, Denver7's Colette Bordelon and Stephanie Butzer visited Michael Cerveny and Brad Day to see how their operations in Pitkin County had been negatively impacted by the controversial re-release of that pack.
As of the latest data available for the report's publication, the Copper Creek Pack was living on the outskirts of Carbondale and Basalt in an urban-rural interface. This area has large private residences, small hobby farms and six to eight large livestock producers, Kohn explained.
"Heavy year-round recreation use on adjacent public lands including hiking, biking and winter recreation pushes ungulates onto private lands where human pressure is lower and this creates conditions that also attract wolves," he said. "And the Copper Creek Pack has established territory within this environment.”
Last year, CPW worked with three producers experiencing consistent wolf activity to implement strategies to move those wolves away. This included turbo fladry, which carries an electric shock, scare devices and other non-lethal measures. Wolves were spotted during both the installation and removal of the fladry, Kohn said. During the calving period, agency staff also found wolf tracks outside and inside the fladry enclosures, and discovered that elk had torn down the fencing.
Range riders were brought out to the area and kept night watch for three weeks.
However, despite these measures, depredations continued from March 2025 through April 2026, Kohn said.
"These experiences highlight the challenges of conflict minimization in high-conflict areas like this," he explained, adding that even with a significant investment of resources and time, the issue persisted.
In the King Mountain Pack, which has settled in northern Eagle County and southern Routt County near the ranching communities of Toponas and Burns, where large-scale livestock operations are set up.
Two fladry projects were set up in the area, but range riders became the most useful tool there, Kohn said. Still, in March 2026, the wolves were spotted around livestock.
"What we’re seeing on the ground is the conflict minimization can reduce risk, but it does not prevent all conflict," Kohn said. "Even with fladry, range riding, night watch and consistent human presence, depredations are still occurring. These tools require substantial time, labor and coordination and their effectiveness varies depending on the landscape, scale and wolf behavior.”
No single tool will work in every situation, he explained.
For most of the 2025 season, CPW had eight riders across eight counties, said Wolf Damage and Conflict Minimization Manager Rae Nickerson. Collectively, they rode almost 15,000 miles over 4,000 hours for 34 different livestock producers, she said. These individuals are responsible for reducing conflict between livestock and all predators, not just wolves, and can pass along information to help producers make better decisions about conflict and management, she said.
Those range riders detected at least 15 wolf-related depredations — meaning livestock that was either seriously injured or killed — in the last biological year, Nickerson said.
This upcoming season, CPW will have 15 range riders available around the state. They just wrapped up their training on the Western Slope.
Producers can apply for three different kinds of permits, should they feel like they need to take matters into their own hands. That includes:
- Injurious non-lethal permit: If approved, this would authorize the producer or employee to use products that can cause temporary pain to a wolf, like rubber buckshot. Forty-five of these were issued in the last biological year (43 in the northwest region and two in the southwest region).
- In-the-act permit: This is issued retroactively — after an investigation — if a producer kills a wolf that is killing, chasing or harassing livestock. None were requested in the last biological year.
- Chronic depredation permit: If approved and specific criteria is met, this would authorize a producer to kill a wolf in the case that CPW does not have the capacity to do this itself. Three requests were submitted in the northwest region. One did not meet the criteria and was denied. The two others were denied because CPW attempted lethal removal on its own.
Colorado's wolf damage compensation program: "CPW has funding to pay for the... claims"
As Ray Aberle, deputy assistant director of outdoor recreation and lands, began his presentation on Colorado's wolf damage and compensation program, he had a clear message for the commission in front of him.
"First, CPW has funding to pay for the recommended and approved claims for damages from gray wolves. This needs to be clearly stated," he said. "Second, I’m grateful to the state legislature for dedicating funding to assist in meeting the needs for both non-lethal wolf-conflict reduction efforts and compensation for damages for gray wolves.”
Senate Bill 23-255, which was introduced in March 2023, was finalized that May alongside the state's wolf management plan. It appropriated $350,000 annually for depredation compensation, as well as conflict minimization and program management.
If the depredation fund is expended, payments that are approved by the CPW Commission can be paid through the following options:
- The general fund
- The species conservation trust fund created in section 24-33-111 (2)(a)
- The Colorado nongame conservation and wildlife restoration cash fund created in section 33-1-125
- The wildlife cash fund created in section 33-1-112 (1)
In the last biological year, the state had more than 40 confirmed depredations on cattle, sheep and working dogs.
"The total expected damages paid for confirmed depredations, vet bills, reduced conception rates, reduced weaning rates and missing livestock is expected to total approximately $1 million," Aberle said.
The year prior, CPW confirmed 32 depredations with total compensation of about $610,000.
"Colorado’s compensation plan is exceedingly different from any other state’s compensation plan. Due to the nature of how the decision to restore wolves to Colorado took place, via citizen initiative, with the sideboard language of the proposition, Colorado voters have agreed to pay for losses for livestock caused by gray wolves as verified pursuant to claim procedures that were authorized," Aberle said. "Those claim procedures include compensation for direct, confirmed depredation of livestock up to $15,000 per incident, ratio claims whereby a livestock owner can be eligible for additional missing livestock, veterinarian expenses and compensation for reduced conception rates and reduced weaning rates and additional missing livestock.”
In the summer of 2025, CPW convened a working group to examine the state's compensation program for any non-regulatory areas for improvements.
"This group included university experts in livestock production, CDA, livestock producers, gray wolf restoration proponents, and CPW staff. This effort resulted in increased clarity and an improved claims process," the report reads.
Denver7 has been following Colorado's wolf reintroduction program since the very beginning, and you can explore all of that reporting in the timeline below, which starts with our most recent story.
