JACKSON COUNTY, Colorado — One of the two wolves that were caught and collared last week has already slipped out of its collar, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said Tuesday.
The wolves, Male 2101 and Male 2301, were darted with tranquilizers by a CPW crew from a helicopter on Feb. 2 in the North Park area of Jackson County in northern Colorado.
During a wolf reintroduction planning meeting Tuesday in Rifle, CPW's Reid DeWalt said: "On Sunday we received a signal from the collar of 2101 which is what we refer to as a mortality signal – that doesn't mean the animal is dead necessarily – but what that means is for three locations the collar hasn't moved so we began to wonder what was going on with that collar."
DeWalt said an agency employee went out Monday and found the collar.
Male 2101 was first captured and collared in February 2021, but that collar was damaged and quit working in 2022. DeWalt said during Tuesday's meeting the collar's battery pack had been ripped out.
Wolves in Jackson County
"Wolves are rough on collars and that’s to be expected that in time collars will fail," CPW Species Conservation Program Manager Eric Odell said in a news release last week.
DeWalt added during Tuesday's meeting that CPW crews were flying in the North Park area Tuesday morning and had spotted Males 2101 and 2301. He said Male 2101 was doing fine and is well.
Male 2101 is presumably the father of Male 2301, CPW said in an earlier release. Male 2301 and five other pups were born to Male 2101 and female wolf 1084 in 2021, CPW said.
Three wolves believed to be from the North Park pack were shot and killed in Wyoming in October. Hunting wolves in Wyoming is legal.
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