After its much-publicized release of five wolves on Monday, Dec. 18, Colorado Parks and Wildlife released five more wolves over the past week.

All of the wolves were released on state-owned land in Summit and Grand counties, according to a news release. The controversial reintroduction of gray wolves to Colorado comes three years after voters approved a plan following a statewide ballot measure.

Two females and three males were released Monday on state-owned land in Grand County. It’s unclear if the five released since then were all on Summit County land, or divided between the two counties.

According to a provided photo, at least one wolf, a yearling female, was released on Tuesday, Dec. 19.

“A press release was shared documenting the first five animals reintroduced in the state,” wrote Parks and Wildlife in a Friday evening news release. “The remaining release events were not widely shared to help protect the safety and security of the wolves, (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) staff, and the locations of endangered species.”

That brings the total of wolves reintroduced in Colorado to 10. Parks and Wildlife said there are no plans to release more this calendar year.

The 10 animals fulfill the agreement with Oregon to provide up to 10 wolves to Colorado, but they still intend to release a total of 15 by mid-March 2024.

Pair part of a pack that killed livestock

As first reported by The Fence Post, a sister publication of the Summit Daily, two of the wolves released Monday in Grand County were part of a large pack in Oregon that killed three livestock animals and injured two others. The wolves, known as 2302-OR, a juvenile female with black fur weighing 68 pounds, and 2303-OR, a juvenile male with gray fur, weighing 76 pounds, come from the Five Points Pack.

The Fence Post reported that Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Livestock Depredation Investigations show that Five Points pack wolves injured one calf and killed another in separate depredations in July of 2023; killed a cow on Dec. 5, 2022; and injured a 900-pound yearling heifer on July 17, 2022.

On July 21, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife authorized the killing of up to four wolves from the Five Points Pack after two attacks on livestock within a week, which were the second and third depredations in the area within eight months. With the state’s permission, ranchers killed two adult females, one adult male, and a yearling female from the pack by Aug. 4.

CPW Director Jeff Davis and his staff testified before the House Agriculture Committee on Sept. 12 that they would do everything possible not to bring “problem” wolves to Colorado. The Fence Post said emails to Colorado Parks and Wildlife asking why Five Points pack wolves from the chronically depredating pack were released in Colorado have not yet been returned.

The Fence Post contributed to this story.