Colorado’s gray wolves expanded their range in northern Colorado in April, traveling further into watersheds in Moffat, Routt and Larimer counties, state wildlife officials reported Wednesday.
UPDATE: Wolf connected to livestock killings could be breeding, wildlife officials say
Collars on two of the 10 wolves released by Colorado Parks and Wildlife in December stopped working, but those two wolves are still alive and traveling with other wolves with functioning collars, state officials said in a news release Wednesday.
One of the collared wolves was found dead in Larimer County last week from apparent natural causes.
The updated map shows wolf activity from March 26 through Tuesday in watersheds from the Wyoming border to south of Avon and west of Craig in Moffat County to Larimer County west of Fort Collins.
The wolves’ range expanded into Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests east of Granby; northwest of Craig and Steamboat Springs into Moffat and Routt counties; and east into Larimer County.
Wolf activity continued in Eagle, Summit, Grand and Jackson counties, according to the map, though the wolves did not roam as far into west Rio Blanco County as they appeared to on the March map.
While the map shows watershed boundaries where wolves have been located, it doesn’t mean wolves are in those areas now or that they traveled throughout the entire watershed, CPW officials said.
The collars record a GPS position every four hours and send the data to state biologists once four locations are recorded. State officials do not share specific locations to protect the wolves and may “buffer” maps to protect wolves during certain times of year, such as mating season.
Map accuracy will drop over time because of other wolves immigrating from other states, collar loss and wolf reproduction, state wildlife officials said Wednesday. State biologists are aiming to keep at least two collared wolves in each pack.
State officials also launched a new page tracking domestic animals killed by wolves, including four cattle and two calves killed in April.
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