State wildlife managers in Colorado have carried out a rapid series of lethal control actions, killing three wolves in the span of just three days. The sudden removals come amid a sharp surge in livestock conflicts across multiple counties, placing renewed scrutiny on the state's ongoing wolf reintroduction and recovery program.
The latest culling occurred on September 9, when Colorado Parks and Wildlife personnel and partner agents lethally removed an uncollared female yearling from the One Ear pack. That targeted removal followed the killing of two other wolves on September 7, marking one of the most concentrated management interventions by state officials since the species was reintroduced.
Over the past three months, wildlife officials have eliminated a total of five wolves statewide in direct response to escalating livestock depredations. Notably, every one of the five animals targeted and killed during this three-month timeframe was an offspring of the wolves previously captured and released into Colorado to seed the wild population.
The recent operation against the One Ear pack unfolded along the border separating Grand and Jackson counties. Ranchers operating in this mountainous region have experienced recurring livestock losses, prompting state wildlife authorities to deploy lethal field teams directly onto agricultural lands.
This operation represented the second time in roughly five weeks that state wildlife officials targeted the One Ear pack for lethal control. On August 4, agency personnel killed an uncollared male yearling from the same group in an effort to curb depredations, though that intervention failed to stop further attacks.
Under official state wildlife guidelines, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is authorized to conduct lethal removals when a wolf or pack meets the formal threshold for chronic depredation. The state's management framework defines chronic depredation as a minimum of three confirmed livestock attacks within a 30-day window carried out by the same wolf or group of wolves.
According to a formal news release issued by the agency on September 10, officials documented seven additional livestock depredations attributed to the One Ear pack following the initial August 4 lethal removal. The agency maintained that throughout this subsequent evaluation window, wildlife staff collaborated closely with affected agricultural producers to deploy a variety of nonlethal deterrent methods before opting for deadly force.
The lethal operation on September 9 first came to public attention after an impacted rancher alerted reporters from The Coloradoan. When journalists subsequently reached out to state officials on September 9 to verify whether a lethal culling was actively underway, the agency declined to confirm the operation directly, citing the sensitive nature of wildlife management field activities.
The state's reluctance to provide prior notice stands in contrast to the communication protocols employed in other Western states with established wolf populations. Wildlife managers in Oregon and Washington routinely release public notices before conducting lethal removals, specifying the targeted wolf pack and detailing the depredation history warranting the action. Although Colorado heavily modeled its wolf recovery framework on those Pacific Northwest models, it has chosen not to publish its intent prior to eliminating wolves.
The recent lethal control actions have placed the One Ear pack's status as Colorado's largest confirmed wolf pack in immediate jeopardy. According to the state agency's annual report, the pack comprised nine individual animals as of March 31, including four adult wolves and five known pups that were born in the spring of 2025.
Those five offspring had matured into yearlings by 2026, but the cohort has suffered substantial losses over the summer. In addition to the two yearlings culled by wildlife officials in August and September, investigators are currently looking into a separate late-July incident in northwest Colorado where another uncollared yearling from the pack is suspected to have been struck and killed by a motor vehicle.
The swift pace of the state's lethal interventions has generated sharp pushback from environmental and wildlife protection organizations. Samantha Miller, senior carnivore campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, strongly criticized the agency's actions, stating that killing three endangered wolves in a single week amounts to internal sabotage by an agency that is failing to take its responsibility for wolf recovery seriously.
Beyond advocacy criticism, several wolf biologists and researchers have openly questioned the overall efficacy of incrementally culling yearling wolves. Experts have cast doubt on whether removing juvenile pack members actually resolves chronic predation patterns or simply disrupts pack dynamics without preventing future livestock losses.
These management actions have taken place against the backdrop of a marked statewide increase in wolf-livestock conflict. Official records show that confirmed depredations climbed to 13 incidents in July and jumped to 21 in August, bringing the cumulative total to 51 confirmed depredations this year as of September 6, with several recent reports still pending official inclusion.
The current rate of livestock conflict substantially outpaces the figures recorded during 2025, when wildlife officials confirmed 37 total depredation incidents over the entire calendar year. Those 2025 incidents ultimately led to roughly $1 million in state compensation claims distributed to impacted livestock producers.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife previously estimated that the state's wild wolf population stood at 32 adult wolves, in addition to newborn litters, at the end of March. The wildlife agency also noted that four separate packs successfully produced an unconfirmed number of pups during the current year's breeding season.
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