Colorado Parks and Wildlife released its second annual report on wolves, providing an overview of the agency’s management, monitoring, conflict mitigation and research as it reintroduces the animal in Colorado. 

The report covers the second biological wolf year, only including activities between April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. This means the document does not include recent livestock attacks, new denning activity and five additional wolf deaths, including Parks and Wildlife’s lethal removal of a Copper Creek yearling after chronic depredation activity in Pitkin County.

The report is a checkpoint for the wildlife agency as it completes the voter-mandated reintroduction of gray wolves in Colorado. Per its wolf management plan, Parks and Wildlife is planning to release 10 to 15 wolves for three to five years, with additional releases if necessary to supplement the overall restoration effort. It has currently completed two years of releases, bringing 20 total wolves from Oregon and British Columbia. 

From how long wolves roamed in certain watersheds to how much Parks and Wildlife has spent compensating producers for losses related to the animals, here are some key numbers and takeaways from the second annual report. 

How many wolves are in Colorado?

The report includes multiple metrics that show the evolution of Colorado’s wolf population for the second biological year. 

By Dec. 31, 2024, Colorado had 15 gray wolves, including 10 adults and 5 pups. 

In January, it transferred 15 wolves from British Columbia. 

Parks and Wildlife reports the death of five gray wolves in Colorado during this time frame, including an April 3, 2024, death of an uncollared wolf reportedly due to “entrapment” as well as the loss of four collared wolves. These four deaths included an Oregon wolf who died in April 2024 from a mountain lion attack, the Copper Creek male who died in captivity from injuries related to a gunshot wound, an Oregon wolf who died in September following a fight with another wolf, and the death of a British Columbia wolf who was killed in Wyoming by a federal agency in March 2025. 

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With these population changes, adult wolf survival was reportedly 75% for known wolves in Colorado during the time frame. Parks and Wildlife’s wolf plan indicates that a survival rate below 70% over a period of six months would trigger a review of the restoration efforts. 

The report also includes maps that illustrate the watersheds where the collared gray wolves spent the most time. During this reporting period, nearly all of the wolves in Colorado were collared, something the report notes will decrease as the population increases, making monitoring unique. 

Between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025, wolves spent the most time (10 to 12 months) in the watersheds around Steamboat Springs and north toward Walden and stretching south along Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs and the Eisenhower Tunnel. 

Between Jan. 19, 2025, and March 31, 2025, following the release of the 10 British Columbia wolves and five Copper Creek Pack members, wolves spent the most time (all 3 months) in watersheds along and north of I-70, stretching toward U.S. Highway 40 around Kremmling, in Pitkin County, where U.S. Highway 285 and U.S. Highway 24 meet in Antero Junction and south toward Salida. 

Part of the monitoring efforts include 7 research projects underway and listed in the report, including seeing how wolves and humans impact elk populations and movement in North Park, how drones can minimize conflict between wolves and livestock, social science research, how wolves impact cattle behavior and more.

How much money has the state spent on depredations? 

Per the state statute that mandated the wolf reintroduction, Colorado is required to compensate producers for livestock and working animals injured or killed by wolves as well as for indirect losses — which cover missing animals as well as reduced weight and pregnancy rates — on ranches impacted by wolf depredations. In total, during the period covered by the second annual report, Colorado compensated ranchers for damages totaling over $393,000.  

This includes the payment of $44,143.08 for 10 depredation claims involving the direct loss of 32 animals, mostly cattle, between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025. This compensation included $31,552.95 for confirmed losses and $12,590.13 for missing animals.

It also includes the $348,881.53 in compensation paid by the state for missing cattle or sheep and production losses in three wolf damage claims.  

The legislature created the Wolf Compensation Depredation Fund in 2023, providing a dedicated source to pay producers for the loss of livestock or working animals by wolves. In the first year, 2023-24, the fund received a $175,000 transfer from the state general fund and is set to receive $350,000 in each subsequent year. 

How many non-lethal resources did Colorado deploy? 

The report also gives some insight into how Parks and Wildlife and producers have deployed tools to minimize conflict between wolves and livestock. 

Parks and Wildlife hired seven wildlife damage specialists to deal with depredations and six range riders for its program with the Colorado Department of Agriculture during the biological year. 

The agency received 275 requests for items and tools — such as scare devices, fladry (or bright colored flags meant to scare wolves), carcass management and night watches — meant to minimize conflict. 

The vast majority of these requests — 215 in total — were for site assessments, where Parks and Wildlife gives individualized recommendations to ranches on how to prevent wolf-livestock conflict. Garfield County producers made 52 site assessment requests, the largest number, followed by 25 in Moffat County, 24 in Mesa County and 22 in Eagle County. 

During the reporting period, 11.55 miles of fladry were deployed at seven locations in Pitkin, Grand and Jackson counties. 

Funding for nonlethal tools also came from a variety of external sources and totaled $904,512, comprised of: 

• $75,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Wolf Compensation and Conflict Mitigation grant
• $774,250 from Colorado’s Born to Be Wild License plate
• $9,474 in materials from the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project 
• $29,288 from Defenders of Wildlife 
• $10,000 from the Wolf Conflict Reduction Fund
• $5,000 from the Wolf and Wildlife Center 
• $1,500 from Colorado Wild 

The report also calls out a $2.5 million grant for Colorado producers from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, issued this year to fund these tools. 

Parks and Wildlife issued 29 permits (from 29 requests) for “injurious non-lethal hazing,” which allows ranchers to haze wolves with items like bean bags, rubber buckshot, and/or double balls. Only one of these was from the Southwest region. 

The agency also denied one chronic depredation permit, indicating in the report that it will only grant these when a situation is found to meet its definition and Parks and Wildlife lacks the resources to address the situation itself.