Resources to learn more
To learn more about co-existing with wolves, we suggest these resources...
FAQ:
Colorado Wolves Frequently Asked Questions by the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence at CSU
Videos:
"How Wolves Change Rivers" (short video by Sustainable Human)
https://vimeo.com/255961914 " (The Myth of the Big Bad Wolf Narrated by Glenn Close)
Petitions:
https://www.westernwatersheds.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Wolf-Petition-Western-DPS.pdf
Talks:
Animal Rights Movement Talk on Wolves
June 4, 2023
A Wolf Story
Rick McIntyre is “The Ultimate Guru of Wolf Behavior.” According to his friend, Jane Goodall!
Rick has spent more time studying wolves than anyone on the planet in the past 40 years and over 100,000 wolf sightings.
He is the best “wolf storyteller” anywhere and here is a bit of the story of a wolf he knew well, 21M, as he describes in his book, The Reign of Wolf 21.
21 according to Rick, was a near perfect wolf in YNP. He was born to the Rose Creek Pack in 1995.
He fought off many wolves to protect his family but even though he sure could have, he never killed another wolf. He was a Ben-ev-olent king of Lamar Valley for 7 years.
21 became the alpha male of the Druid Pack and paired with a female wolf who was killed. He was able to then pair with 42F who became his true love.
He played with and raised many pups with 42.
There’s was a wolf love story for the ages.
When 42 became missing 21 looked for her really for the rest of his life.
He howled for her in all the places they had lived in YNP. He spent months looking for her.
21 was aging and his final place to look for 42 was at the Opal Creek Rendezvous Site. 21 bedded down and died next a tree that him and 42 spent many happy years with their pups, watching them and the yearlings play amidst many wildflowers, just as human couples might do. It was their sacred and favorite place.
21 never found 42, but most likely he caught her scent in the tree where he laid down and died. Perhaps he had a picture of 42 in his mind before he passed away.
· History of Wolves in Colorado
The gray wolf is native to Colorado. Historically, wolves were distributed all throughout the State. During the latter half of the 1800s, hunters decimated wolf prey such as bison, elk, and deer. At the same time, domestic livestock were increasing in numbers. By the mid-1940’s, wolves were eradicated from Colorado by shooting, trapping, and poisoning at the behest of livestock producers.
As Barry Lopez wrote, “the wolf became an object of pathological hatred.”
Wolves were restored to, (YNP), Yellowstone National Park, in 1995 and over the next decades, only a handful of wolves have made it to Colorado. Arriving here on their own is near impossible for wolves due to the continuous merciless slaughter, of wolves in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho that prevents wolves from getting to Colorado.
Wolves have intrinsic value and play a very important role in revitalizing and restoring the ecosystems in which they live. They improve habitat and increase populations of countless species from birds of prey to pronghorn, beavers, and trout. Wolves effect plant and animal communities and is why, they are a “keystone species.”
Gordon Haber’s Wolf Research from 40 years in Denali describe Wolves as the most social of nonhuman vertebrates. Wolf family social ties are unsurpassed, even among humans. Each individual wolf has its own personality, and their ability to express emotion. Wolves are monogamous, and their reproductive bonds are at the heart of wolf social organization. As they become tuned to their territories, each wolf family group will develop its own unique adaptive behaviors and traditions, their culture which they pass on for generations, like humans.
Wolves are protected in Colorado by the Federal Endangered Species Act, ESA.
The ESA mandates that the Secretary of the Interior (Deb Halaand) use all methods necessary to recover a listed species to restore viable populations however the FWS has shown no interest in restoring wolves to Colorado. The powerful livestock lobby has FWS, BLM, CPW, in a stranglehold in favor of producers and hunters, trappers, outfitters, who want to kill wolves, who they mistakenly believe will harm their profits.
Historically, wolves thrived from Canada to Mexico, but now they only occupy 20 percent of their historic homeland. The missing piece for wolves to fulfill their destiny, is here, in the Southern Rockies.
How Wolf restoration Passed in Colorado
Coloradans passed Ballot Proposition 114 in Nov 2020 to reintroduce wolves to Colorado and to have paws on the ground by December of 2023!
Proposition 114 is now law and State Statue C.R.S. 33-2-105.8.
Prop 114 states -CPW is to create a wolf management plan for Colorado.
CPW appointed a Stakeholder Advisory Group and a Technical Advisory Group, spending a million of taxpayer dollars, which leaned heavily of those who favored livestock producers, outfitters, hunters and only a few non-consumptive Coloradans to create a wolf plan.
This CPW Wolf Plan was revealed in Glenwood Springs at their May 3,4th meeting, and there are many flaws in the plan.
Prop 114 states-
1. "Gray wolf" means nongame wildlife of the species Canis lupus.”
Wolves are never to be hunted in Colorado.
Sadly, the CPW’s plan adds the potential to delist wolves and allow hunting, thus going against Prop 114 and wrongly refers to a time the wolf may be classified as a game species.
Hunting wolves is trophy hunting, killing for sport.!!
(Phase 4 delisted, game status-changed to a neutral stance after public outcry and fear of litigation.)
2.Prop 114 states it is to -Assist owners of livestock in preventing and resolving conflicts between gray wolves and livestock-
The CPW plan fails best science by focusing on lethal control of wolves despite best science that says non-lethal coexistence strategies work best.
Of 6 million cows in the Northern Rockies 146 deaths were wolf related. That is (0.0025%) and near zero, wolf related deaths, when coexistence strategies are used, such as removing dead carcasses of livestock, use of fladry, fox lights, human presence, range riders, specifically trained wolf guard dogs.
The CPW Plan focuses on the 10(j) rule to give permits to kill wolves by circumventing the Endangered Species Act Protections, rather than requiring producers to use non-lethal coexistence strategies.
The Wood River Project, is a success story about the value of non-lethal coexistence strategies to decrease conflict between wolves and livestock-
The Project documented 90% lower sheep losses then the rest of Idaho. Tens of thousands of sheep grazed in an area with less than 4 depredations.
Other ranches including, Tom Miner Basin, Graziere Ranch, (Alberta) have had near zero depredations in decades by using coexistence strategies.
In Colorado, Livestock producers, outfitters, trappers, on the SAG spoke out for the past two years that they had no desire and would not use coexistence strategies. They repeatedly said, “Don’t tell us what to do.”
3.Prop 114 states-
Once restored to Colorado, gray wolves will help restore a critical balance in nature.
Sadly, little is said in the CPW wolf plan about the intrinsic value of wolves and
The need to protect wolves and the ecosystems that they support.
We must fight for a requirement that coexistence strategies be mandated on public lands and to prohibit the killing of wolves on public lands that belong to wildlife.
Cattle grazing on our public lands, has destroyed native vegetation, soil, and stream banks, contaminate waterways with fecal waste and once-lush streams and riparian forests have been reduced to flat dry wastelands.
(Trophic Cascade)
Colorado has over 16 million acres of public lands, more habitat for wolves than anywhere in the world. We have over 750,000 deer and elk for wolves to support their families.
Chronic Wasting Disease has been detected in 40 of our 54 deer herds, 17 of 42 elk herds. It is a deadly, non-curable prion.
Wolves help cull the herds of the sick and weak and are not affected by this disease.
In the last weeks of this legislative session the agriculture lobby, trophy hunters and trappers got a bill into the Senate AG committee to demand CPW put a 10(j) into place before wolves could be reintroduced to Colorado.
SB23-256 went against the vote of the people and the work that has been done for years to get wolves to Colorado and could have delayed wolf reintroduction forever.
I am so grateful to Governor Polis for vetoing this horrific bill.
In the words of Mark Bekoff-
“Every wolf has a story we need to hear and to use on their behalf. Can we be trusted to listen? I sure hope so because wolves need all the help they can get, and time is not on their side.”
Wolves face danger from humans as they return to Colorado.
You each have the power to be a voice for wolves and here are actions you can take to make sure wolf families will be welcome in their native home.
Please sign up to receive our emails. We will send you the most current information on wolves.
Included on the handout are links to legislators and others to contact and groups who are pro wolf that you can join and learn from.
Thank you for your time! “Awoooooooooo!!!!!!
Howl Yes! Rhonda Dern
1234M YNP - photo credit Carolyn Golba
“I filmed this wolf 1234M while in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) in November of 2021. A few weeks later, he stepped out of the invisible border of YNP to immediately be killed by a trophy hunter. I think about him every day and will spend the rest of my life working to protect wolves.” Tell your story on why you will welcome wolves’ home to Colorado!
What You Can Do for Wolves
ü Sign in to receive our email updates on wolves.
ü Develop a relationship with your Legislator and send them updates on wolves frequently that we can provide you.
ü Attend Wolf Days with us at the Capitol.
ü Let friends and family know the intrinsic value of wolves and not be misled to old myths of the big bad wolf.
ü Share wolf updates from us on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
Contact Colorado State Officials –
Ø Contact Governor Polis and Colorado Legislators with updates on wolves and that you want them here.
o Governor's Office, Front Desk: (303) 866-2471
o Governor: GovernorPolis@state.co.us
Ø First Gentleman Marlon Reis - Marlon.Reis@state.co.us
Ø Colorado Legislators - https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators
Follow all Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) Meetings –
https://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/CommissionMeetings.aspx
“Be a voice for wolves when they are not!!!”
Contact the Federal Government –
Ø You might say, “Please re-list wolves in all 50 States. Leaving Wolf Management up to the states is leading to the extirpation of wolves, via hunting trapping at the cruelest means.”
v President Biden
§ https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
v Secretary of the Interior - Deb Halaand
§ www.doi.gov/secretary-deb-haaland
§ 202-456-1111
v Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services - Martha Williams
§ (800) 344-9453
Join Organizations that support Wolves –
· WildEarth Guardians - https://wildearthguardians.org/wildlife-conservation/defend-native-carnivores/
· Center for Biological Diversity - https://www.saveourwolves.org
· Wildlife for All - https://wildlifeforall.us
· Western Watershed - https://www.westernwatersheds.org
· Humane Society - https://www.humanesociety.org
· Project Coyote - https://projectcoyote.org/programs/carnivore-conservation-coexistence/protect-americas-wolves/
· Relist Wolves Campaign - https://www.relistwolves.org
· Endangered Species Coalition - https://www.endangered.org
Colorado Wild - https://coloradowild.net
Colorado Wolf Alliance- https://coloradowolfalliance.com
Living With Wolves- https://www.livingwithwolves.org/about-wolves/tackling-the-myths/
hearings until it would be too late to change course. That’s no surprise, considering that the advisory groups developing the plan — groups created by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and with their appointees — support wolf-killing and oppose mandates to prevent their predation on livestock.
the plan request that ranchers be required to dispose of carrion from domestic animals that weren’t killed by wolves before wolves scavenge on them and are drawn close to vulnerable livestock, and that there be human presence or equivalent protection close to stock to prevent predation by wolves. Our comments propose delisting criteria and include scientific studies that Colorado Parks and Wildlife should consider.
If you live in Colorado, please contact Gov. Jared Polis, your state representative and senator, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners. Tell them to follow the law: Use the best available science, convene statewide public hearings now, and — as the law now requires — make sure the plan supports restoration of nature’s critical balance.
What can people do?
The most important thing right now is to make sure the state’s plan guarantees wolves’ long-term viability and their efficacy in restoring the natural balance in Colorado, which is one of the law’s goals. That means the plan must include measures to compel the livestock industry to prevent wolf predation on livestock, as well as recovery criteria measured in part by improvements in the status of other animals and habitat, which wolves San Juan Mountains to aid this critically endangered subspecies.
The law calls for Colorado to start reintroducing wolves by December 31, 2023, and to develop a restoration and management plan using the best available science and timely input gained from statewide public hearings. Colorado Parks and Wildlife disregarded the Center for Biological Diversity a process with integrity.
Unfortunately, the plan soon to be presented to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission
Articles:
Artelle,K.A., Reynolds, J.D., Treves, A.,Walsh, J.C., Paquet, P.C.,, & Darimont, C.T 92018). Hallmarks of Science missing from the North American Wildlife Management Science Advances, 4(3) http://advances.sciencemag.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0580
Cassidy, K.A. Borg, B.L., Klauder, K.J., Sorum, M.S.,Thomas-, R., Dewey, S.R., Stephenson, J.A., Stahler, D.R., Gable, T.D., Bump, J.K., Homes, A. T., Windels, S. K. & Smith, D.W. (2023). Human -caused mortality triggers pack instability in gray wolves. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2939
Chapron, G., & Treves, A.. (2026). Blood does not buy goodwill:allowing culling increases poaching of large carnivore. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 238((1830), 20152939. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2939
Clark, T.J.,& Hebblewhite, M. (2020) Predator Control may not increase ungulate populations in the future: A formal meta- analysis. Journal of Applied Ecology, 58(4), 812-824.
Eklund, A., Lopez,-Bao, J.V., Tourani, M., Chapron, G.,&Frank, J. (2017) Limited evidence on the effectiveness interventions to reduce livestock predation by large carnivores. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 2097.
Endangered Species Coalition. (2020). Wolf Conservation Planning Guide.
https://www.endangers.org/wolf-conservation-planning/agencies/
Raynor, J.L., Grainger, C. A., &Parker, D. P. (2021). Wolves make roadways safer, generating large economic returns to predator conservation. 1-10.
Https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023251118//DCSupplemental.
Tanner, E., WhiteA., Acevedo, P., Balseiro, A., Marcos, J.,& Gortazar, C., (2019)
Wolves contribute to disease control in a multi -host system. Scientific Reports, 9(7940), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44148-9
The Humane Society of the United States. (2019). Government data confirms that wolves have a negligible effect U.S. cattle and sheep industries.
https://humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/HSUS-Wolf-LivestockReport-Feb2019.pdf
Trevis, A., Artelle, K.A., Darimont, C./T.&Parsons, D.R. (2017. Mismeasured mortality: correcting estimates of wolf poaching in the U.S. Journal of Mammalogy, 1-9.
https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx)52
Treves, A., Chapron, G., Lopez-Bao, J.V, Shoemaker, C., Goeckner, A.R., & Bruskotter, J.T. (2015). Predators and the public trust. Biological Reviews, 92(1), 248-270.
Treves, A., & Santiago-Avilla, F.J. (2020) Myths and assumptions about human -wildlife conflict and coexistence. Conservation Biology, 00(0), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13472
Treves, A., Santiago-Avila, F.J. (2023). Estimating wolf abundance with unverified methods.
https://doi.org//10.1016/j.biocon.2018.11.018
Treves, A., Santiago-Avila, F.J., & Putrevu, K. (20210. Quantifying the effects of delisting wolves after the first state began lethal management.. PeerJ, 9)e11666), 1-16.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11666
Vucetich, J., & Nelson, M.P. (2014). Wolf Hunting and the ethics predator control . In L.Kalof (Ed), The Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies. Oxford University Press.
http://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199927142.013.007
Wallach, A., Ritchie, E., Reid, J.,&O'Neill, A., (2009). More than mere numbers: The impact of lethal control on the social stability of a top-order predator. PloS One, 4(9).
Wild, M.A., Hobbs, N.T. Graham, M.S. & Miller, M.W. (2011). The rolde of predation in disease control: Comparison of selective and nonselective removal of prion disease dynamics deer. Journal of wildlife diseases, 47(1), 78-93. https:https://doi.org/10.7589/0090-3558-47.1.78
Santiago-Avila, F.A., & Lynn, W.S. (2020b). Bridging compassion and Justice in conservation ethics. Biological Conservation, 248, 108648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108648
Santiago-Avila, F.J., Lynn, W.S.,& Treves, A., (2018c). Inappropriate considerations of Animal interests in predator management: Towards a comprehensive moral code. In T. Hovardas (Ed.), Large Carnivore Conservation and Management: Human Dimensions and Governance )pp. 227-251). Routledge.
Santiago-Avila, F.J., & Treves, A. (2021). Toward multi species justice in human-wildlife coexistence: reply to Clark et al. Conservation Biology, 35, 1337-1340.
https://doi.org/10.111/cobi.13789
Haber, G.C. (1996). Biological, Conservation, and Ethical Implications of Exploiting and Controlling Wolves. Conservation Biology, 10(4), 1068-1081.
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10041068.x
"Mismeasured mortality: correcting estimates of wolf poaching in the United States" from Journal of Mammalogy (2017)
"Liberalizing the killing of endangered wolves was associated with more disappearances of collared individuals in Wisconsin" from Nature.com (2020)
"Predators and the public trust" from Biological Reviews (2015)
"These Non-Lethal Methods Encouraged by Science Can Keep Wolves From Killing Livestock" from Smithsonian Magazine (2020)
"Nonlethal Solutions to Reduce Conflicts: Helping Livestock and Predators to Coexist" from Project Coyote, a non-profit
https://www.livingwithwolves.org/about-wolves/why-wolves-matter/
Books:
Beyond the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation-From Lethal to Compassionate Conservation . by Anja Heister, 2022.
Among Wolves, Gordon Haber's Insights into Alaska's Most Misunderstood. Gordon Haber and Marybeth Holleman, 2013
Wild New World, An Epic Story of Animals and People in America, Dan Flores, 2022.
"Coyote America," by Dan Flores, 2016
"This Land," by Christopher Ketcham, 2019
"The Rise of Wolf 8" by Rick McIntyre, 2019
"The Reign of Wolf 21" by Rick McIntyre, 2020
"Wolf Nation" by Brenda Peterson, 2017
"Awakening Spirits Edited" by Reading, Miller, Mashing, Edwards and Phillips, 2010
"Predatory Bureaucracy" The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West, by Michael Robinson, 2005