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Why was Colorado's Precious, Promising First Wolf Pack Decimated?

From Marc Bekoff, Ph.D.
September 2024

The wolves did what they were asked to do and were victims of their own success. The loss of this beautiful family group is unforgivable and shameful.

Colorado Wolves
Image: patrice schoefolt/Pexels

A brief introduction and an interesting cryptic telephone call

Like many people across Colorado and around the world, I’ve been eagerly waiting to learn more about Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s (CPW) operation to capture and relocate the individuals comprising what has come to be called the Copper Creek pack—a tight knit family group consisting of a mother, a father, and their four children.

On Friday August 23, 2024, before the CPW operation was announced, I received a cryptic phone call from someone out of state who asked me a number of questions including: Would I be okay if some wolves were killed to save others, to which I answered no, killing is off the table. I also was asked if I would support trapping and relocating wolves from where they were causing a problem and I said I'd prefer that they were left alone, but if that wasn't an option and they had to be relocated the entire pack had to be kept intact and they could only be moved to another wild location.

Thinking back on this phone call, I felt like was being played, being tested, because the person who called well knew my position of leaving the lupine family alone and had to know what I'd say.

When the announcement of the trapping and relocating operation was made on August 27th, I once again thought about the surprising phone call and it felt as the caller knew something was coming down the turnpike and was warning me, offering a premonition of what was to come, and wanted to see if perhaps I'd change my views.

We now know the Copper Creek pack made their den on the property of a rancher who wanted them dead, but was denied a chronic depredation permit because they did little to deter the wolves from preying on their sheep, and perhaps even encouraged it by leaving unburied carcasses in an exposed ‘kill pit.’

Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE, including:

  • A brief introduction and an interesting cryptic telephone call
  • A brief history of Colorado’s repatriation/reintroduction project
  • Following the science
  • What's happening now?
  • The current situation for the trapped and relocated wolves
  • What does the future look like?
  • A few lingering questions: Would you conduct this sort of operation again?
Posted on All-Creatures.org: September 12, 2024
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