The USDA’s Wildlife Services officials on Saturday shot and killed a male wolf released in Colorado from British Columbia after it traveled into north-central Wyoming and killed five adult sheep.
In an email Thursday, the USDA’s Wildlife Services confirmed agency officials responded to the sheep killings on private land and found “evidence consistent with a wolf depredation” including tracks, struggle sites, carcasses with hemorrhaging and the bite marks of a wolf.
Only one of the sheep had been heavily fed on, the release said. A USDA spokesperson would not confirm the exact location of the killings.
Gray wolves are capable of traveling immense distances. In a Colorado Wildlife Commission meeting last month, reintroduction project managers said they had observed one of the British Columbia animals ranging more than 400 miles in 30 days.
Amanda Fry, spokesperson for the Wyoming Game and Fish, told The Colorado Sun the wolf, identified by its tracking collar number 2505-BC, was legally shot by Wildlife Services agents.
The Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, in an email statement Thursday, condemned the killing, calling it “a devastating act that highlights the failure of USDA Wildlife Services, Wyoming ranchers and state agencies to prioritize coexistence over lethal control. This wolf’s death appears to result from negligence in adopting proven nonlethal strategies to prevent conflicts between wolves and livestock.”
Unlike wolves in Colorado, Wyoming wolves are not federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Instead they are managed by the state under a dual classification, with most of Wyoming designated as a “predatory animal area” where they can be taken year-round without a license. In an area adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, where wolves were reintroduced in 1995, and Grand Teton National Park, wolves are considered “trophy game animals” with regulated seasons and licenses.
Like Colorado, Wyoming has chronic depredation laws that allow for lethal control of wolves harassing, injuring, maiming or killing livestock or other domesticated animals.
Travis Duncan, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson, said the wolves released in early January from British Columbia came from areas where there is no overlap between wolves and livestock. However, wolves are opportunistic hunters, he said, and when wolves and livestock share the landscape, some conflict is to be expected.
The news comes a day after a Pitkin County cattle rancher told The Colorado Sun a wolf killed one of his yearlings and another is missing. He said CPW confirmed the killing, although it is not yet listed on the agency’s list of official depredation cases.
