Just over a year and a half into Colorado’s wolf reintroduction, the state has four established packs.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed that there are currently four dens in northwest Colorado, issuing names for the three new packs: 

• The One Ear Pack in Jackson County
• The King Mountain Pack in Routt County 
• The Three Creeks Pack in Rio Blanco County

The fourth den belongs to the Copper Creek Pack in Piktin County. 

Parks and Wildlife released the pack names and locations in a PowerPoint presentation posted as part of the agenda for its Commission meeting on Thursday, July 17. Eric Odell, the agency’s wolf program coordinator, is expected to give a wolf program update to the commission at Thursday’s meeting in Grand Junction. 

The agency has not released an estimated number of pups. In early July, Garrett Watson, Parks and Wildlife’s northwest deputy regional manager based in Grand Junction, told the commission that getting a count at this time of year is “extremely difficult” as the pups remain close to the den site until late summer. 

Parks and Wildlife considers a group of wolves a pack once wolves have successfully reproduced.  

Gray wolves typically breed once a year, typically between mid- to late February. Pups are born around two months later, with denning starting in mid- to late-April after their birth. According to Parks and Wildlife, females can give birth to between one to 11 pups, with the average litter size falling between four and six pups.

In early May, Parks and Wildlife confirmed it was tracking up to four possible dens this spring. In June, it reported staff had seen pups on the ground. 

The One Ear Pack, King Mountain Pack and Three Creeks Pack all represent new packs and dens from this spring.  

The Copper Creek Pack was Colorado’s first pack of reintroduced wolves, established in 2024 in Grand County by two adult wolves from Oregon. 

The pack’s original patriarch died from injuries connected to a gunshot wound after the pack was captured and placed in a wildlife sanctuary, following a series of livestock attacks in Grand County. 

Four of the pack’s original pups were released with the adult female in January. 

Shortly after, the matriarch bred and had additional pups with one of the adult male wolves, 2503, brought to Colorado from British Columbia this year. The pack is currently denning in the Capitol Creek area of Pitkin County. 

Parks and Wildlife killed one of the Copper Creek yearlings in May after the pack was tied to repeated livestock depredations in Pitkin County. The agency is closely monitoring the group of wolves and has said it will take additional steps should the pack continue to kill or attack livestock.