By Landon Haaf | Denver7
The series of depredations occurred between May 17 and May 25.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials have killed a gray wolf that was believed to be involved in a series of attacks that killed two livestock calves and injured three more calves and one cow in Pitkin County.
The series of attacks meets the agency’s criteria for “chronic depredation” that it finalized in January: three or more depredation events caused by the same wolf or wolves within a 30-day period, with “clear and convincing evidence” of at least one of the attacks.
The wolf apparently involved was gray wolf 2405, a member of the Copper Creek Pack – still the only confirmed wolf pack in Colorado since their reintroduction in 2023. The Copper Creek pack was relocated from Grand County last fall after a series of wolf attacks.
According to Friday’s news bulletin from CPW, the Pitkin County attacks happened between May 17 and May 25. Attacks on May 24 and May 25 resulted in the deaths of one calf each.
CPW “lethally removed” the wolf on Thursday.
The ranchers involved in those attacks had “implemented all reasonable non-lethal deterrence measures,” CPW said, including the use of fladry and other conflict mitigation tools and the swift removal of carcasses.