Report says state’s ‘mother wolf’ missing, likely dead

The mother wolf of the North Park wolf pack hasn’t been seen since February, according to a report from the Coloradoan.

An expert said the wolf is probably dead, with a likely scenario being that this happened legally at the hands of a human after entering Wyoming, the Coloradoan reported.

Roughly 15 percent of Wyoming is regulated for wolf hunting, while in the other 85 percent of the state, wolves are considered predatory animals. This means that when wolves cross into this so-called ‘predatory zone,’ they can be shot on site with few regulations.

This is a major contrast with Colorado’s wolf hunting rules, where killing a wolf is illegal in nearly every scenario with the exception of self-defense. Thus, while a wolf may be protected in Colorado, it could be shot immediately and legally upon crossing the border.

Wolves are now federally protected in the lower 48 states, but exceptions are made in the Northern Rocky Mountain populations in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and parts of Oregon, Washington, and Utah.

While Colorado is currently in the planning phase of a formal wolf reintroduction effort, the missing ‘mother wolf’ is part of a small pack that migrated into the state from Wyoming, first seen in early 2020. This was the first time wolves were found to be consistently living in Colorado in decades, though the small size of the pack would mean that this population is not sustainable.