Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) reported the depredation of a calf amid troubles the agency is having with some collars placed on translocated wolves.
On April 2, CPW received a report from a landowner in Grand County of a dead calf. Officials from the agency conducted a field investigation and confirmed a wolf depredation occurred.
CPW Area Wildlife Manager Jeromy Huntington said the investigation’s findings revealed multiple tooth rake marks on the calf’s hindquarters and neck, along with hemorrhaging under the hide, typical signs of wolf depredation. Additionally, wolf tracks were discovered near the site.
CPW said it offers reimbursement for losses incurred by livestock, including animals utilized for guarding or herding purposes. The agency also supplies conflict minimization materials through its Gray Wolf Compensation and Conflict Minimization Program.
On March 27, the agency released its updated collared gray wolf activity map, which shows where collared wolves have been in the past month, and reported a problem with two collars.
CPW biologists reported that a collar placed on a wolf translocated from Oregon has stopped transmitting signals. However, the wolf is traveling with another wolf with a working collar, allowing CPW to monitor its movements.
Despite the malfunctioning collar, CPW confirmed the wolf’s survival through visual confirmation from an airplane. Additionally, another wolf’s collar has been flagged as partially functional, posing potential issues for its future functionality.
The collars record a position every four hours before transmitting a packet of four locations via satellite to CPW biologists. However, factors like dense cloud cover and rugged terrain can delay position recording and data transmission. While CPW staff can analyze the data to track where wolves have been, they cannot determine their current location or predict future movements.
The agency said that over time, the proportion of wolves with functioning collars transmitting data will decrease due to factors like immigration, collar failure and natural reproduction. This could reduce the tracking map’s accuracy as uncollared wolves’ activities may not be accounted for. — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
