First wolf in Colorado?

[LongbowArchitect]

It's happening as expected. The "re-introduced" wolf is migrating south from Montana, Idaho & Wyoming into Colorado. I hope Colorado can control them better than our neighbors to the north.
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[John Havard]

Wolves have ruined hunting in Idaho and they will do the same to Colorado unless their numbers are managed through aerial wolf hunting.

[Hud]

Eastman's magazine reported one of the WY pack was in AZ. They are not the same as the smaller wolf that inhabited the country.

[4dogs]

They have been here for a while. A tagged female was found dead along I 70 three maybe four years ago. There have been several credible sightings in northpark over the last few years. I have been told there is a small pack around encampment just across the WY border too.  

[TOEJAMMER]

I recall a confirmed wolf killed by being hit by a vehicle, on I-70  some 10 or more years ago.  We also saw one about 20 years ago while elk hunting west of Cowdry.  We were only about one half mile south of the Wyoming border south of Medicine Bow National Forest.

[Pat B]

I had a wolf pass within 25 yards of me when I hunted the San Juan Mountains in Colorado back in 2010. I saw him(or her) twice within 2 hours, once at about 40 yards and later at about 25 yards. It was the thrill of my hunt.
 This is the best pic I could get of him. He was at about 40 yards here.
   

[ChuckC]

The report really chaps my hinder. . .  So it takes certified genius expert game biologists three weeks using DNA sequencing to determine if this is really truly a wolf, but the poor slob hunter, who did the right thing and called it in, had maybe ten seconds, at a distance, in a state where "there are no wolves" to make a determination, right or wrong.

 Same goes with many ( maybe most, but I am certain not all) of the recent cop shootings.  Six months later the DA in all his infinite wisdom looking at all the evidence, makes a cut, while the poor cop has seconds, under duress.
ChuckC

[cisco 2]

Well said ChuckC

[wingnut]

The alarming thing to me is that they are now in Colorado and probably in numbers.  If you value the elk and moose herds you need to take corrective action.  The elk and moose herds in all states that have uncontrolled wolves are devastated.  They need to be controlled aggressively or Colorado will be next and it won't take but a few years.

Mike

[monterey]

Still pending DNA results.  There are quite a few dog/wolf mix in private ownership.  Could be one of them.

The wolf huggers are lobbying hard to have the hunter charged.  Media seems to support the idea charging him.  I don't think he will be charged.  He did exactly the right thing according to law.  If PAW caves and charges him they will alienate the hunting community to the point that the three S's will have to be SOP for any sensible hunter.

[durp]

SORRY!!!

[Stickbow]

Hunting and trapping by sportsman will not control their numbers. We have an organization that reimburses hunters and trappers up to $500 per Wolf in Idaho and in N. Idaho that is all that is keeping our heads above water.

I have said from the beginning when Colorado gets hit with the Wolf tsunami like Idaho did we will hear a heck of an outcry from sportsman.

 The last 10 years here (N. Idaho) has been gut wrenching to watch. When your wildlife biologists make statements like, "Well at least we will always have Deer to hunt" you know you are in dire straits.

I don't hate Wolves, I hate what the overpopulation has done.

[SCATTERSHOT]

"Shoot, shovel, and shut up."

[picapica]

Per ChuckC, you've gotta love the hunting ethics of guys like this. So he's licensed (and trained??) by the state to hunt coyotes and this kind of "shoot it cuz it moved and is hairy" is the best he can do?? I guess you get what you "pay" for....

What's even nuttier is the article then becomes a commercial for "Big Game Forever"! This private, Utah group founded by Don Peay and Ryan Benson was chartered to lobby federal officials and funded by at least $600,000 of Utah taxpayer money to oppose the re-introduction of wolves into Utah - a state where no reintroduction has been formally proposed. They have now received at least $2 million to fund their work for which there is virtually no oversight. When asked at an appropriations hearing about what his group has accomplished with the money, Peay responded vaguely with “It’s been used to do a very complex, political, legal, grass-roots effort,". Kind of makes you wonder what UT taxpayers got for their money…..

What’s even crazier is that Peay used his previous group “Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife” to engineer a land swap with a Texas oil company to shut sportsmen out of 80,000 acres of public land. He’s also on record as saying that it’s time to “revisit” the widely accepted principle in the United States and Canada that game is a public resource, calling the current system of laws “socialist”. He supports giving private landowners special rights to hunt big game, even out of season, and to be able to sell those rights.

It appears that Peay is now capitalizing on the average sportsman and their rage against wolves in furthering a much larger political and profit driven agenda. Thanks again for drawing our attention to this.

[BWallace10327]

Originally posted by SCATTERSHOT:
"Shoot, shovel, and shut up."

X2

[John Havard]

Having seen the destruction that unchecked wolf packs can do to moose and caribou populations in Alaska for decades I know with certainty that their numbers must be managed if a sustainable number of game animals are to be available.  The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has exhibited the good sense to institute carefully regulated aerial wolf hunting during the winter.  They do it not from a hatred of wolves but instead from a love of balance.  

In Unit 20E where I annually hunt for moose the numbers of moose have risen each year specifically due to the reduction in the numbers of wolves (and the increase in resident brown bear tags).  After speaking with a G&F biologist a year ago he told me that if Alaska stopped aerial wolf hunting the population of moose would be back to barely surviving in 20E in less than 4 years.  This is from someone with no "hunting skin in the game" but instead from a scientist who wants to see healthy populations of both predators and prey in his area of concern.

The Kenai Peninsula (especially the high bench area above Tustumena Lake) used to be THE destination moose hunt anywhere in Alaska.  Unfortunately that area falls inside of the Federally managed Kenai National Moose Range.  The Feds do not allow aerial predator hunting.  Now you're lucky to even see a moose on the Peninsula.   Just ask Steve H. how bad the moose hunting is now down on the Peninsula.  It used to be the ultimate hunting destination for moose in Alaska.  Now NO ONE thinks of going to the Kenai to hunt moose.

Wolves unchecked and unreduced will result in a lynx/lemming sine/cosine wave of feast and famine.  Reduce the wolves with oversight and management.  In so doing they survive in reasonable numbers AND the population of game animals (moose, elk, deer) will thrive.  Too much science and hard facts support this to be a debatable issue.  It is not debatable - it is proven fact.

If Colorado fails to learn from the failures of Idaho and the successes of Alaska then shame on them.  Aerial wolf hunting is necessary and should be embraced by the Colorado authorities.

Death from above!

[picapica]

Here in Oregon, wolves were slowly exterminated between 1843 and 1947. They have been returning to the state since ~2006 with the first pups reported in 2008.

Moose, which were never historically documented in Oregon, have been colonizing the state at exactly the same time and may now outnumber wolves. The first calf was reported in 2005.

Seems like a double win for archers when both populations reach sustainable populations that can be hunted.

[John Havard]

Good luck in Oregon.  You'll need it.

[ChuckC]

Pica. . .  I made very little comment about his ethics, or skills or abilities, Outside of the very obvious rant about the trained biologist has to do DNA testing on it to establish that it is really a wolf ( but this guy. .  and we. .  get to establish that fact in seconds at long range).  

Don't put words in my mouth.
ChuckC

[Scott E]

Wait so this isn't true?