The female mountain lion kitten was orphaned in June 2024 and rescued by district wildlife manager Andy Brown, CPW officials said on social media this week.

Brown took the cub to the Pauline S. Schneegas Wildlife Foundation facility in Silt, where she lived for more than a year before growing big enough she could be released back into the wild like any normal mountain lion that leaves its mom.

CPW staff released the mountain lion back into southwest Colorado, and videos and photos of the release show the predator wanted nothing to do with humans – which is a very good sign for a rehabilitated animal, state officials said.

After taking a less-than-graceful tumble out of a cage, CPW staff watched her return to her home.

After the mountain lion had been given a reversal drug to counteract the tranqulizer, she took a short ride to be released into good mountain lion habitat in southwest Colorado.

Watch as DWM Brown opens the lion trap and she tornadoes out of the truck. pic.twitter.com/zFdD8fgFgY

— CPW SW Region (@CPW_SW) July 29, 2025

“While the release wasn’t the smoothest ever, it is truly good to see that this mountain lion wanted nothing to do with humans, did not associate us with food and wanted to get away from us as quickly as she could,” state officials said in a post on social media. “This mountain lion now has a second chance to survive in the wild.”

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The annual count by CPW’s Southeast Region team seeks to provide “an accurate assessment of the current herd population and ratio of males to females,” according to a release by CPW. “The data is used to assess trends in the population size, make hunting license recommendations, and determine current herd health.”

The first recorded survey of Bighorn Sheep on Pikes Peak was in 1949 when 205 were counted. Annual counts have been conducted by CPW since 1988. The official count in 2024 was 82.

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Taulere and Arrone Appel were on their nightly walk with their small, white Cavachon dog on Friday. It was about an hour after sunset when their dog, Bodhi, stopped walking and looked off, as though he noticed something.

Within “two seconds,” Bodhi was dead, Taulere said. A mountain lion had pounced from a nearby bush to steal the dog.

Arrone started to approach the lion, not as sure that the lion had killed Bodhi, before Taulere beckoned him back. The couple was only about a half-dozen houses down from their home on Balsam Drive, where they would take Bodhi for his nightly walk.

“It was just, like, out of nowhere,” Taulere said. “We walked home in shock.”

The Appels have lived in Boulder since 1984. Taulere said she has never heard of such an attack on a leashed pet in a residential area.

Once they got home, the Appels called Boulder’s non-emergency line. Boulder Animal Protection; the city’s department of Open Space & Mountain Parks department; and Colorado Parks and Wildlife responded.

On and off starting at 3 p.m. Saturday, the three agencies came to Balsam Drive, knocking on doors to warn neighbors and looking for the mountain lion.

The CPW could not find the wild cat, said Kara Van Hoose, CPW’s Northeast Region public information officer.

Now, Taulere said, the couple is not as confident about going outside as they were before they lost their dog.

“It wasn’t afraid of us,” Taulere said. “But we’re afraid of it now.”

Mountain lions are common in Boulder, Van Hoose said. The Boulder area has one of the densest mountain lion populations in the country. That does not mean Boulderites will see them often.

The predator cats are territorial, solitary animals, Van Hoose said. They usually come out between dusk and dawn, traveling under the cover of darkness.

They have been known to prey on small animals such as dogs. Usually, though, those dogs are off-leash.

Van Hoose said young lions or older lions are more likely to go after easy targets such as small house pets. Small dogs, like the 10-pound Bodhi, can make an “easy meal,” Van Hoose added.

Mountain lions may also develop a pattern; if a mountain lion knows a certain prey to be an easy source of food, it might return and try again.

Van Hoose said Boulder is full of wildlife, whether mountain lions, deer or elk. People should expect to encounter wild animals when in the city. But, she said, there are ways Boulderites can protect themselves and their pets against attacks.

• If you must take your dog out at night, turn the lights on or bring a flashlight.

• Make noise before letting a dog out to scare off any nearby wild animal.

• Do not let a dog run around at night in the dark.

Mountain lions are far more likely to prey on a pet at night, when the dog is off-leash and nothing is making the cat think twice.

“They’re not necessarily very visible,” Van Hoose said. “And they want it that way.”

Anyone who sees a mountain lion in their neighborhood should call CPW, Van Hoose said. The state agency will assess the situation and figure out the best protective path forward.

Sometimes a cat creates a “cache” of food, rather than eating it all in one place. Residents are advised to leave them alone and call CPW. The agency’s main numer is 303-297-1192​.

So far this year, Boulder County residents have reported mountain lions 28 times to the agency. By this time last year, county residents had called 24 times, of a total 43 reports in 2024.

Taulere said she wished there were a better warning system for the presence of mountain lions. She and her husband would not have taken Bodhi out had they known a mountain lion was in the area, she said.

The Appels’ dog had only been with the family for a year before he was killed on Friday. The couple got Bodhi while grieving their previous dog, who died from health complications last year.

“Bodhi was a really good dog,” Taulere said. “He wasn’t afraid of anything.”

The wolf or wolves traveled broadly in Moffat County, from watersheds near the Wyoming border to the dry, rolling hills northwest of Craig along U.S. 40, according to the monthly map released Wednesday by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. At least one wolf was also present west of Meeker and north of Rifle.

Otherwise, the state’s wolves primarily remained in the central and northern mountains between June 24 and July 22, including in areas around Steamboat Springs, Vail, Leadville, Salida and Aspen. At least one wolf was active in the mountains north of Durango during the period.

The new map comes as CPW continues to monitor for new pups from the state’s three new packs: the One Ear pack in Jackson County, the King Mountain pack in Routt County and the Three Creeks pack in Rio Blanco County.

The Routt County pack produced at least four new pups, and the state’s already-established pack, the Copper Creek pack, produced an unknown number of pups this spring, CPW officials previously said.

CPW’s monthly maps show which watersheds at least one wolf traveled in during the previous month.

On Wednesday, CPW also released the results of investigations into the deaths of two wolves in the reintroduction program in the spring.

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Four drivers on C-470 in Highlands Ranch crashed into a moose just before 11:30 a.m. on July 11, according to a Colorado State Patrol news release.

At least one driver died in the crash, which happened on the westbound highway between University Boulevard and Quebec Street, agency officials said in the release.

Another fatal crash happened early Sunday morning on C-470 near Ken Caryl, southwest of Denver. The driver swerved to avoid a deer near Kipling Parkway, went off the road and rolled, agency officials said.

“There is no ‘off-season’ for wildlife in Colorado,” state patrol officials stated in the release. “Last year, animal-involved crashes were the third most common crash factor among all crash types.”

State patrol troopers responded to 3,573 crashes involving animals in 2024 and, as of July 17, had already responded to 1,600 this year.

More than 1,500 of the 2025 crashes resulted in property damage, 63 caused injuries and two were fatal, according to the state agency.

“Drivers in the mountain communities know to expect wildlife, but these animals can show up in more unexpected locations everywhere in our state,” Col. Matthew Packard, chief of the Colorado State Patrol, stated.

To avoid animal-related crashes, officials said drivers should:

• Scan roads and shoulders for movement or eye shine,
• Use bright lights at night when safe and flash lights at oncoming cars to warn of wildlife on the road,
• Not honk at wildlife in or near the road,
• Brake, if possible, and turn on the car’s hazard lights until the animal moves out of the way,
• Maintain control of the vehicle, and
• Not exceed the speed limit, which increases damage and injury in a crash.

“If you cannot stop safely, do not swerve – drive straight through. Try to hit the animal from the side, rather than from the front,” officials said.

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A collared female gray wolf that died in Rocky Mountain National Park in April was killed in a mountain lion attack, according to an investigation led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A second collared female gray wolf found dead in northwest Colorado in May died from its injuries after it was caught in a coyote trap, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said. While those kinds of traps are usually banned, livestock producers can use them for a 30-day stretch if they meet certain criteria, which was the case here.

The person who trapped the wolf notified state wildlife officials, who then released the wolf, but CPW received a signal from the wolf’s collar the next day that it had died.

State officials suspended all 30-day trap permits for foothold traps, snares and instant-kill traps “pending further review,” the agency said.

Federal wildlife officials are still investigating the May 31 death of a collared male gray wolf.

Reintroduced gray wolves in Colorado are surviving at normal rates, and the average gray wolf lives between 3 and 4 years in the Rocky Mountains, according to CPW.

State officials named three new wolf packs in Routt, Jackson and Rio Blanco counties this summer and confirmed the birth of at least four pups.

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We’d hired a guide, Liam, from The Next Eddy, 129 W. First St., to take us out for the morning, and Ben was a natural. He’d grown up fishing on lakes in Indiana and had been contemplating fly fishing since we moved to Colorado in the early 2000s.

Twenty-plus short years later, here we were, at the Arkansas Headwaters, a Hoosier and his plant-based wife, learning to flick impossibly long rods into some of the county’s premium Gold Medal waters.

If the Arkansas flows with extra swagger near Salida, that’s probably because the 100-mile stretch of river from Leadville to Cañon City claims premium, trout-rich waters teeming with stocked fish.

Still, I’d always been a Buena Vista gal, and while I’d driven past Salida countless times, I’d never stopped to explore the state’s largest historic district.

Buena Vista and Salida might be close, but they have different personalities.

Summer in Salida is something to celebrate–avoid the crowds over the Fourth of July and on Father’s Day weekend, when an insane whitewater boating festival, FIBArk, takes over the town during the Arkansas River runoff (June 12-15 this year).

Hammered out as a railroad depot town in 1880, Salida buzzes with outdoor enthusiasts, and yet it doesn’t typically draw the overwhelming number of tourists you’ll find in larger mountain communities.

Riverside Park, 170 E. Sackett Ave., is a downtown hub with great people-watching and easy water access.

You’re welcome to fish here in town; if you’d like solitude, wander a few hundred yards up or down.

Hiring a guide is highly recommended for those new to fly fishing.

The Next Eddy and ArkAnglers, 7500 U.S. 50, are Salida’s full-service fly shops. Both outfitters specialize in guided fly-fishing trips for all experience levels, including beginners like me.

Take note: Local rafting companies offer fishing excursions, too, but fly-fishing isn’t the primary focus.

While walk-ups can sometimes be accommodated at both, booking guided trips in advance is a good idea.

“We have a fairly lax cancellation policy,” The Next Eddy co-owner Sarah Medved assured me.

I can vouch for this policy since I had to rebook twice. Both outfitters prefer handling bookings over the phone to ensure each client is matched with the right trip. Call 719-530-3024 and 719-539-3474, respectively, to set something up.

Aside from a backpack with extra layers and water, you won’t need to bring much on a guided trip. “Come as if you’ll go hiking in Colorado for a day, and don’t forget waterproof socks,” Medved said.

After checking in at The Next Eddy and being fitted for waders and rods, Ben and I followed Liam past the Mt. Shavano Hatchery, 7725 County Road 154, to a quiet fishing hole. There, we spent the rest of the morning learning to use our gangly poles on a half-day walk-and-wade excursion that included four hours on the water.

More experienced anglers might consider a full-day high-alpine trip. But be warned: Eight hours on the water is intense, even for seasoned fishers.

Ben didn’t need much practice. A few minutes into the excursion, he raised his rod, and before I could say arbor knot, Liam, who’d been teaching me how to cast, was bounding toward his star student.

Since I wasn’t confident wading, I stayed put and watched from afar as a celebratory “fish-catch montage” unfolded to the soundtrack of burbling water. When you’re knee-deep in the Arkansas, all you hear is snowmelt galloping toward the Mississippi.

Amid the merrymaking–fist bumps; photo documentation—I continued casting. Despite Liam’s best efforts to teach me about drag-free drifts, my line had plans of its own.

Liam beamed with the pride of a new parent. “Rainbow trout,” he reported.

“Colorado’s state fish!” I said.

“No,” Liam corrected with a shake of his head. “That would be the Greenback cutthroat. Rainbow trout aren’t even native to Colorado.”

Really? A few hours later, when our four hours were up, I insisted on a quick fact-checking detour to the hatchery.

Anyone can pop in during operating hours, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., to watch a short educational video and tour the facility. It’s a no-frills experience, to be sure, but if you’re traveling with kids, they’ll love tossing fish food into the long, rectangular tanks, watching trout ripple the water in a feeding frenzy.

Liam was right, of course: Rainbow trout might be one of Colorado’s most beloved fish–they’re stars in the state’s multibillion-dollar fishing industry—and yet, from a biological standpoint, they really don’t belong here.

In the late 1800s, nonnative trout–rainbows, browns, and brookies—were introduced throughout Colorado’s rivers and lakes during the metal and mining boom, for food and sport, often in areas that once provided habitat for native cutthroat populations.

“It was popular back then to stock the landscape and see what stuck,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife aquatic biologist Alex Townsend.

I wanted Townsend to tell me that the trout live together in perfect harmony, but that’s not how the story goes. Over time, competition and interbreeding significantly diminished native fish numbers.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working hard to reintroduce native species like the Greenback cutthroat, which now occupy less than 2 percent of their original range. The organization doesn’t have the wherewithal to restore all the rivers to native fish, so it also focuses on preserving introduced species, including rainbow trout.

In the 1990s, a parasite, whirling disease, tore through fisheries across Colorado, nearly wiping out rainbow trout. Several years ago, thanks to state government intervention and a discovery that led to an innovative crossbreeding program, a unique strain, the Gunnison River rainbow trout, emerged as a disease-resistant fish.

Efforts to support native and nonnative fish populations are unfolding simultaneously. Maybe this is the message of hope I sought.

As for what you’re likely to catch in Salida, brown trout dominate. Higher up in the drainage, rainbow and brook trout appear more frequently.

Anglers interested in “unique opportunities,” as Townsend put it, can head to alpine lakes and springs to try netting golden trout and Arctic graylings.

I was parched, so I stopped at Mountain Phoenix Roastery, 112 W. Rainbow Blvd., just off U.S. 50. From there, I linked up with local artist and walking guru Jonathan Stalls, author of the 2022 title “WALK: Slow Down, Wake Up, and Connect at 1-3 Miles per Hour.”

Stalls was happy to point me to his favorite Salida footpaths, including the paved Rodeo Run Trail (sometimes referred to as the CR 120 Trail), a 3.3-mile route from Salida to Poncha Springs, and the Monarch Spur Trail, a 2.5-mile rail-trail, also paved, from the Arkansas River to Highway 50.

For a post-fishing hike with panoramic views of downtown, Stalls recommended crossing the Arkansas River on F Street and walking through the parking lot to reach the Arkansas Hills Trail System. Also known as the Tenderfoot Trails, this hiking area features an interconnected network of dirt singletrack.

“I’ll usually walk a route that combines the following trails: Lower Sand Dunes, Frontside, Backside, Little Rattler, Burn Pile, Dream On, Rise N Shine & Labyrinth,” Stalls told me. Hiking up to the “S” from here is also possible.

“When I’m looking for a more meditative walk,” Stalls added, “I take the Salida River Trail to Franz Lake. It’s a beautiful, calming gravel path moving from Marvin Park, through Sands Lake, under 291, and to/around Franz Lake,” he said.

Before parting ways, Stalls walked me around downtown Salida’s two main throughfares, F Street and Sackett Avenue. The town isn’t just charming: It’s the state’s largest historic district.

Today, many of the area’s 136 well-preserved historic buildings house craft coffee shops, boutiques, restaurants, and art galleries that trickle toward the water on side streets moving as effortlessly as individual tributaries.

For more local lore, visit the Salida Museum, 406 1/2 W. Rainbow Blvd., located directly behind the Salida Chamber of Commerce. It is open weekends only from noon to 4 p.m.

Salida is also a certified “Creative District.” Around town, you’ll find artisans of every genre, from blacksmiths and potters to fiber artists, muralists, graphic designers, photographers, and fine artists.

Galleries and studios stay open late on the first Friday of the month for First Friday Art Walks.

All the fresh air is bound to make you hungry. Locals rave about Boathouse Cantina, 228 N. F St., boathousesalida.com, a riverside American-Baja Mexican joint serving pizza, burgers, tacos, and much more.

Try Tres Litros Beer Company, 118 N. E St., and the newly opened Salida Distillery, 110 E. 15th St., for drinks.

If you need a grab-and-go option before getting on the water, try The FlaminGo, 10538 W. U.S. 50, a food truck in nearby Poncha Springs. The online reviews aren’t wrong: Sweetie’s Sandwich Shop, 129 W. Sackett Ave., is a solid choice for a quick lunch.

The Salida Hot Springs Aquatic Center, 410 W. Rainbow Blvd., is a family-friendly rec center in town.

If you want to unwind after an adventurous day, do yourself a favor and drive to Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort, 15870 County Road 162 (Nathrop). This resort offers natural soaking pools and postcard-perfect views of the Collegiate Peaks.

Following County Road 162 for another 16 miles, you’ll reach St. Elmo Ghost Town. The former gold and silver mining camp provides an enjoyable glimpse into the past.

With so much to do, staycationers might consider staying a night or two. The recently renovated Manhattan Hotel, 228 N. F St., offers comfortable accommodations in the heart of downtown.

For an authentic Colorado experience, remember that the area is surrounded by BLM and Forest Service land, making dispersed camping abundant and easily accessible. You’ll also find plenty of vacation rentals with Victorian-era charm.

Catch a live performance at the Salida Rotary Amphitheatre in Riverside Park to close out a perfect day in Salida.

As the last notes fade into the cool night air and the Arkansas delivers its burbling lullaby, you start to feel that Salida isn’t merely a destination to visit but a special place to return whenever possible.

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“The baby raccoon was sleeping (these guys are nocturnal) and wasn’t exactly happy about being woken up, but it eventually grabbed onto the catch pole and was pulled out safely and unharmed,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a social media post.

Photos posted by the sheriff’s office show the raccoon huddled in the back of the truck’s engine area and, once rescued, hugging the pole that animal services officers used to pull it out.

The Arapahoe County officers returned the raccoon to its natural habitat after the daring rescue at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, sheriff’s officials said in the post.

The sheriff’s office started responding to animal-related calls on June 21, taking over from Arapahoe County’s Public Works and Development.

Officers responded to more than 100 incidents involving dogs, cats, rabbits, foxes, snakes and raccoons in unincorporated Arapahoe County during the first month, sheriff’s officials said.

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It was the first time larvae from the destructive invasive species had been found in the river in Colorado. For nearly a year, despite increased sampling, state wildlife officials didn’t see any more evidence of the mussels.

But their hopes were dashed earlier this month when Colorado Parks and Wildlife detected three more tiny larvae in the stretch of the Colorado River between Glenwood Springs and Silt. The mussels — known to devastate ecosystems and clog critical infrastructure — had once again found their way to the river that is the backbone of Colorado and the Southwest’s water supply.

“We were all hoping against hope that it was an isolated incident,” said Tina Bergonzini, the general manager of the Grand Valley Water Users Association, based in Grand Junction, which manages a Mesa County irrigation system that relies on the Colorado River. “It is scary, from a water management standpoint, when you have something that could affect delivery and have ramifications for our entire community. It’s a scary thought.”

With the discovery of additional larvae this summer, the Colorado River from Glenwood Springs to the Utah border is now considered positive for zebra mussels. The river can shed that designation only once routine testing confirms a lack of zebra mussel larvae for five continuous years. CPW has beefed up its sampling and lab staff to catch any additional larvae — called veligers — quickly.

The invasive species destroys aquatic ecosystems, causes millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure like dams and irrigation pipes, and reproduces at an incredible rate.

Once established, experts said, zebra mussels are nearly impossible to eradicate.

David Strayer, a freshwater ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies who has studied mussels for decades, said he didn’t know of an example where zebra mussels were eradicated from a river system once adult populations had established themselves.

“They have the potential to radically change the ecosystem,” he said.

The spread of mussels

The threat of zebra mussels has always lurked over Colorado’s borders.

The mussels — about the size of a fingernail once mature — are native to Eastern Europe and first appeared in the United States in the Great Lakes in the 1980s. The species has since established itself in all of the Great Lakes, in all large eastern river systems and in 33 states. Just 150 miles east of the Colorado state line, Kansas’ Cedar Bluff Reservoir has hosted a zebra mussel infestation since 2016.

Quagga mussels — an equally destructive relative of the zebra mussel — have established populations downstream on the Colorado River in the system’s two major reservoirs: Lakes Powell and Mead.

Mussels and their larvae spread in two ways: By floating downstream or when they are transported by people from an infected body of water on boats, boots and bouys.

Veligers are microscopic and a single quart of water can contain hundreds, Strayer said. Each year, a mature female mussel can release up to one million eggs.

Federal and state agencies for decades have fought to keep the mussels from the West’s waterways, but the species has been detected in California, Utah and Colorado. The species failed to establish itself in Utah but survived in California.

In Colorado, CPW has detected veligers in Grand Lake and in Pueblo Reservoir, but the species did not establish sustained populations.

The state’s first adult mussel was found in 2022 in Highline Lake, northwest of Grand Junction. In 2023, CPW treated the lake with a pesticide, but mussels were found again a few months later. In 2024, the agency drained the lake completely to kill off the mussels.

But just weeks after the lake was refilled this spring and despite strict decontamination protocols for visitors, samplers found more mussels — and, for the first time, they also found some in neighboring Mack Mesa Lake.

CPW officials have not yet decided what the next steps are for the two lakes, said Robert Walters, CPW’s invasive species program manager.

The discovery of additional veligers in the Colorado River has prompted CPW to bulk up its sampling and testing staff. The agency dedicated a team of three technicians based in Grand Junction to sample the river and doubled the size of its Aquatic Nuisance Species laboratory so that samples could be processed more quickly. It also dedicated staff members from its Denver office to sample the river all the way from the Granby Dam to the mouth of Glenwood Canyon.

The river is now being tested weekly, as are two of its tributaries, the Eagle and Roaring Fork rivers.

At any given time, CPW could dedicate up to 12 staff members to zebra mussel detection, Walters said. In 2024, CPW collected 275 samples from the river for testing. Since mid-April this year, CPW has already collected 279 samples.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, too, is on high alert.

The federal agency owns irrigation canals in Mesa County and has increased testing in those systems, said Ethan Scott, the lands and recreation division manager from Reclamation’s Western Colorado Area Office.

“There’s definitely a concern that if they’re getting in our river, it won’t be hard for them to move to lakes and reservoirs from there,” he said.

Federal and state officials, as well as water managers and ecologists, are urging everyone who recreates or works in rivers and lakes to take steps to kill any mussel larvae that may be stuck on them or their equipment. They should drain, wash and dry all equipment and keep an eye out for adult mussels, which often have black and white stripes.

“If everyone is doing this, we have a pretty good chance of stopping this from spreading farther than it has,” Walters said.

‘Almost everything transformed’

Once established, zebra mussels filter huge quantities of plankton and other organic matter from the water — eliminating food sources for other species.

In New York’s Hudson River system, which Strayer studied, the invasive mussels filtered the river’s entire water supply every day, halved the amount of fish food available, shrank fish populations, reduced oxygen levels in the water, changed the river’s chemistry and decimated the native mussel population.

“Almost everything we measured about the river changed,” he said. “Almost everything transformed.”

Outside of mass ecological change, the mussels can wreak havoc on the valves, pumps and pipes that make up irrigation systems and dams. Adult mussels attach themselves to hard surfaces in incredible densities — up to 1,000 per square foot. They can constrict water flow in pipes and jam moving parts.

As general manager of the Grand Valley Water Users Association, Bergonzini is tasked with running an irrigation system that delivers water to 23,000 acres of land. That includes the Government Highline Canal, where CPW detected veligers last year.

Adult mussels could quickly and easily clog the irrigation system’s 150 miles of pipes as well as the smaller tubes farmers use to drip water directly on crops, like the region’s famed Palisade peaches. The pipes and tubes are meant to conserve water by replacing open ditches and reducing evaporation.

But they are an Achilles’ heel in a mussels infestation, Bergonzini said.

Adult mussels could also clog the association’s fish screen, which keeps fish — including endangered species — from getting trapped in the system’s canals, instead returning them to the river.

The association paid $80,000 to treat the entire system with an ionized copper solution at the end of the last irrigation season and will likely do so again, Bergonzini said

“It’s something that we’re going to have to work with our water users to raise the money for,” she said. “And that’s just for the prevention — it’ll be even more if we end up having adult populations and have to mitigate throughout the year.”

Similar treatment is not possible in the Colorado River itself. There’s just too much water, said Strayer, the ecologist.

“You would need a line of rail cars to dump the substance in the river,” he said.

Bergonzini urged Coloradans and visitors to be vigilant when they work or play in the state’s waters.

“There’s a mindset that they’re already here, but that’s incredibly short-sighted,” she said. “We all need to look at the communities and recreation we have — and realize that all of that could be affected by people’s unwillingness to help stop the spread of this invasive species.”

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The three new packs are the One Ear pack in Jackson County, the King Mountain pack in Routt County and the Three Creeks pack in Rio Blanco County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife says. The packs join the Copper Creek pack, which formed in 2024 and was the first in the state created by reintroduced wolves.

State officials are still trying to confirm the number of pups born this spring, said Eric Odell, the wolf conservation program manager, during a Thursday CPW Commission meeting. Odell did not provide a minimum number of pups observed from all of the packs, but he said at least four pups have been spotted with the King Mountain Pack.

(Watch on YouTube)

The agency has cameras placed near each pack’s den and continues to monitor them, he said.

“Pups are just inherently difficult to monitor this time of year,” Odell said. “They’re small and, up until now, have been tied close to the den in deep cover.”

An average wolf litter has between four and six pups — about half of which will survive the year, Odell said.

Pups from the King Mountain Pack were captured on game cameras deployed by CPW. A video from June 21 showed three of the pups playing in a forested area. The pups were likely born in April and are now likely weaned, Odell said, but are still too small to travel with their parents.

“This reproduction is really key — it’s a really key point in the restoration of wolves to the state,” he said. “Despite some things you might hear, not all aspects of wolf management have been a failure.”

Ranching groups for more than a year have criticized CPW and have alleged that prevention programs were not fully operational before the agency released the first round of reintroduced wolves. Coloradans in 2020 narrowly voted to restore the native canines, with many urban voters casting their ballots in favor of the effort and rural voters opposing it.

CPW released 10 wolves in December 2023 and 15 in January 2025.

Also during Thursday’s meeting, commissioners voted to pay two Grand County ranches a total of $197,712 for missing calves, decreased conception rates and one killed calf that were attributable to wolves.

The state will pay $100,045 to the Farrell Ranch for missing calves. That payment adds to a $287,407 payment approved by the commission in March for 15 livestock killed by wolves in spring 2024 as well as for lower conception rates and lower calf weights caused by the presence of wolves on the ranch.

The Coberly Creek Ranch will receive $97,667: $1,603 for a killed calf, $65,204 for decreased conception rates and $30,860 for missing cattle.

CPW recommended denying the Farrell Ranch claim and the Coberly Creek Ranch’s claim for missing animals, but the commission overrode the staff recommendation and voted to pay both ranches their full claims.

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