An uncollared wolf killed two ewes in the last week in Rio Blanco County in northwest Colorado on the same ranch where wildlife officials shot a wolf but could not find its body, leaving open the question if the current depredating wolf and the one officials shot in August are the same wolf.
The uncollared wolf shot Aug. 16 under Colorado Parks and Widllfe’s chronic depredation definition was believed to have been fatally hit by the rifle shot, but an extensive multi-day search failed to yield the wolf’s body.
The wolf was later identified as the uncaptured fifth yearling of the original Copper Creek pack through DNA obtained from blood and bone fragment left by the wolf after the shooting.
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Kurt Holtzen, a predator conflict mitigation specialist with Western Wildlife Conflict Mitigation based in Idaho and who hazed the wolf from a sheep band before the wolf was shot, told the Coloradoan the Oct. 9 and Oct. 12 depredations took place on the same ranch where previous depredations occurred in August.
“It seems unlikely but possible it might be the Copper Creek yearling,” Holtzen said. “I’m not aware of other wolves in the area and it’s a similar MO.”
There had not been additional depredations in the area since Aug. 16 until the sheep were confirmed killed by a wolf in October, according to the state wildlife agency’s online wolf depredation page.
“It is believed these depredations are connected to an uncollared wolf based on an unconfirmed visual sighting of an uncollared canid and unconfirmed reports of a howl the night of Oct. 9 as well as a lack of GPS collar data in the area,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Travis Duncan stated in an email response to questions posed by the Coloradoan on Oct. 15. “CPW has no way of confirming if this is the Copper Creek yearling at this time. The only way to do this is with a biological sample.”
Duncan stated in the email the livestock producer has deployed sheepherders, guard dogs and a propane-powered noise cannon to guard his sheep as well as used their own game cameras to assist with monitoring wolf presence.
Holtzen said Colorado Parks and Wildlife should try and capture it and confirm if it’s the same wolf or if not the same wolf collar it.
The Copper Creek yearling was the subject of lethal removal after the state wildlife agency confirmed it killed six lambs and a ewe July 20 through Aug. 16 in an approximately 6.5-mile area despite nonlethal measures being used.
There have been 28 confirmed wolf depredations of livestock so far in 2025, matching the same number as all of 2024 in the western part of the state.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado Copper Creek wolf shot by agents might have killed again
