You did it! Colorado has “paws on the ground!” After a very long and at times challenging journey Colorado Parks and Wildlife released five beautiful wolves from Oregon into the mountains of western Colorado on Monday, December 18th. While the journey to Colorado is over for these wolves, we are just getting started in our work to ensure that wolves thrive in Colorado.

Keep these and other wolves safe from harm with your year-end gift today.

Colorado voters approved the reintroduction of gray wolves in 2020–beginning the process of righting the wrong of nearly driving them into extinction in Colorado and elsewhere. The state’s wildlife agency is bringing wolves from Oregon to Colorado to be released in areas that they have identified as most likely to allow them to thrive.

That’s the good news. But there are already threats to this success. This month, despite years of work to take care of ranchers, two bad faith lawsuits were filed by ranchers and trapping and hunting groups seeking to block the release of more wolves in Colorado. We have also seen an uptick in the spread of lies and harmful myths about wolves in the news and on social media. There have also already been threats to kill our wolves through poaching.

Sadly, Colorado wolves that made their way to Colorado on their own have already been killed by hunters and trappers after being lured across the invisible Colorado border into Wyoming. A recent WyoFile news investigation1 found that hunters used electronic calls to lure wolves from Colorado and slaughtered them when they crossed the border.

A wolf from the first breeding pack in Colorado was killed this year after wandering into Wyoming.2 Wolves don’t know boundaries. We saw that tragically around Yellowstone when wolves were lured to their death in Montana. And now we are seeing it on the Colorado border with Wyoming where wolves lack Endangered Species Act protections.

While we celebrate “paws on the ground,” we absolutely must be vigilant and ready to safeguard this new population of wolves in Colorado. Your year-end gift today will support this work and if you give before midnight on the 31st, a generous donor will match it dollar for dollar.

Thank you for your commitment to wildlife and wild places.

Sincerely,

Susan Holmes
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition
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1. https://wyofile.com/border-killings-how-shooters-lured-historic-colorado-wolves-to-their-deaths-in-wyoming/

2. https://www.cpr.org/2023/09/14/colorado-wolves-wyoming-killing/

Photos credit Colorado Parks & Wildlife