Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) killed, or “lethally removed,” an uncollared male gray wolf from the Copper Creek pack on June 12. The wolf had been shot at before and was on the run in Rio Blanco and Routt counties since August 2025.
This was the pup left behind when CPW trapped two adults and four pups in August and September 2024. The adult breeding male died shortly thereafter. He too had been shot, but CPW has yet to find the culprit. The adult female and four pups were kept in captivity for about five months and released in Pitkin County in January 2025.
This pup, born in Grand County, survived for almost two years on its own, traveling throughout Rio Blanco and Routt counties, where it made the fatal mistake of hunting sheep. The wolf did not wear a collar.
CPW Public Information Officer Luke Perkins told The Sopris Sun that the agency believed that the wolf had been shot during an August 2025 lethal control operation in Rio Blanco County, but the carcass was never found. That’s because the wolf survived, evading the Elk Fire, the Lee Fire and two more lethal control operations, including one last January. His luck ran out last week. CPW states that he was responsible for the death of 22 sheep.
Perkins told The Sopris Sun that the livestock owner deployed range riders and herders and guard dogs, used scare devices and had applied for non-lethal hazing permits.
King Mountain female dead
An adult female collared gray wolf was killed in March but the incident did not come to light until early June. Ranch owner Susan Nottingham sent a letter about the incident to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) through the agency’s request for public comment on Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program.
She wrote, “A breeding pair established a den on private property, which I believed was prohibited under the CPW management plan. In the spring of 2024, they had four pups, forming what would become the King Mountain Pack.” Nottingham said that, within a 30-day period, in October 2024, CPW confirmed three depredations but would not issue a chronic depredation lethal kill permit “due to a CPW issue with a historic trash dump used by my outfitter during hunting season.”
After the breeding male of the pack died during a re-collaring attempt in 2024, Nottingham stated, the female and four pups moved into her hay meadows. “I lost three calves, which CPW would not confirm as depredation,” she wrote. “One of my employees ended up shooting the mother female.”
Nottingham told the Coloradoan that the employee fired two warning shots before shooting at the wolf, which then ran off. CPW received a mortality signal from the wolf’s collar on March 11. The case is still under investigation.
The USFWS’ 10(j) Rule, put in place in Colorado just before the first imported wolves were released, allows for lethal take of a collared wolf if caught in the act of killing livestock or guard dogs. Therein lies the rub — it must be proven that the wolf was actually in the process of killing livestock when shot. If so, Nottingham could be issued a lethal take permit after the fact.
Perkins told The Sopris Sun in an email that the exact process is “dependent on the circumstances at the scene.” But, in general, he wrote, “CPW commissioned officers respond to the site to gather physical evidence and interview involved parties to ascertain what occurred.” If the animal has died, officers inspect the carcass and maybe send it to a lab for a necropsy.
“Throughout investigations, CPW and collaborating agencies maintain a chain of custody of evidence to ensure it is not tampered with and uphold the fidelity of the investigation,” he wrote. Evidence and testimony is reviewed to determine if any state and federal laws have been violated. If so, charges, fines and penalties may follow.
In her comment letter, Nottingham stated that she has spent “tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees to protect myself and my employee from facing criminal charges.”