One of Colorado’s reintroduced wolves wandered farther southeast over the last month, exploring territory not yet traveled by any of the state’s collared wolves.
A female traveled in watersheds in Chaffee, Park and Fremont counties in January, according to a monthly tracking map released Wednesday by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The new watersheds it traveled span a large swath of mountains, hills and high prairie stretching from Leadville to Salida, Fairplay and Cañon City.
The map shows where the state’s now 29 wolves traveled between Dec. 22 and Jan. 21. The map highlights watersheds where at least one wolf has traveled in the last month, though a wolf may not have traveled through every part of each watershed and may no longer be in the area.
The map is the first to include the movements of the 15 wolves captured in Canada and released in Colorado earlier this month. Those wolves were released in Pitkin and Eagle counties and the map shows wolves traveled in areas west of Aspen as well as north of Eagle.
A female wolf and her four pups were also rereleased in either Pitkin or Eagle counties after their recapture last year following a string of livestock killings in Grand County connected to the patriarch of the pack. That male wolf died after capture from a gunshot wound it suffered before state wildlife officials captured it with its pack.
Outside of the female wolf roaming south of Leadville and the wolves west of Aspen, all other wolves remained concentrated in Summit, Grand, Jackson, Routt and Garfield counties.
All but one of the known wolves in Colorado are collared. A fifth pup in the pack recaptured in Middle Park evaded state biologists and has remained wild, without tracking.
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