Gray wolves reintroduced to Colorado in December have reproduced for the first time, giving birth to at least one pup spotted in Grand County.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials started gathering evidence a gray wolf pair was denning in early April, when a collared female gray wolf stopped showing up on GPS tracking for part of the month before reappearing.
Her disappearance matched with the expected breeding season, and state biologists confirmed one wolf pup in Grand County on Tuesday, the agency said in a news release.
Parks and Wildlife worked to confirm the pup during routine wolf monitoring efforts, which include observations by air and ground, remote cameras and public sightings.
It’s possible there are more pups, because wolf litters often consist of four to six pups, state officials said Thursday.
Parks and Wildlife workers will continue to monitor the wolves to determine how many were born.
The new pup marks the wolves are officially considered a pack, which Parks and Wildlife named the Copper Creek Pack.
“We are continuing to actively monitor this area while exercising extreme caution to avoid inadvertently disturbing the adult wolves, this pup, or other pups,” state wildlife biologist Brenna Cassidy said in a statement.
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