Wildlife officials in Colorado have captured six wolves that were part of a voter-approved plan to restore the species’ population, after a series of complaints and livestock attacks.
The six wolves – one adult male, one adult female, and four pups – were part of a group known as the Copper Creek pack.
While only the male attacked livestock, officials said the whole pack needed to be removed from the area. It’s not clear whether they will be re-released into the wild.
The episode represents a challenge for the state’s effort to reintroduce wolves, which had once been native to the state. The plan was approved by voters in 2020, but critics feared for the safety of livestock.
Since January, there have been at least 15 wolf attacks resulting in death or injury, according to the state’s database, involving a mix of cattle, calf and sheep.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis acknowledged the adult male wolf was responsible for “multiple depredations” among those attacks, but said “removing the male at that time, while he was the sole source of food and the female was denning, would likely have been fatal to the pups and counter to the restoration mandate”.
CPW removed the adult female and four pups and transported them “to a secure location for evaluation and monitoring”, CPW officials said in a press release on Monday.
The adult male “was found in poor condition, with several injuries” and died after four days of captivity, CPW said.
Officials have not yet decided where they will release the remaining wolves, which will depend in part on whether the pups develop the ability to hunt.
“CPW will have conversations with local elected officials and landowners in possible release areas before a release occurs,” according to the press release.
But some critics are against any release.
The Middle Park Stockgrowers Association sent a letter to CPW in May – their third – complaining about the state’s alleged inaction since the killings in April. Livestock owners want the wolves killed, arging that nonlethal measures “have not stopped the depredations,” the letter said.
“Colorado law requires wolf conflicts to be resolved, not kicked down the road.”
In June, the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Colorado Parks and Wildlife agreed to give the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association $28,000 (£21,499) to improve its nonlethal deterrence plan, local news reported.
The Copper Creek pack formed after 10 wolves from Oregon were released in Colorado in December.
At the time, US media called the decision to transport wild wolves into Colorado “the most ambitious wolf reintroduction effort in the US” in decades.
Supporters of the reintroduction program wanted to restore Colorado’s wild wolf population, after years of decline from hunting, poisoning and trapping.
In Monday’s press release, Mr Davis said the reintroduction program “calls for flexibility”.
The BBC has reached out to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association for comment.
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