Wolf Pups Born in Colorado

Wildlife authorities announced that a litter of wolf pups were born in Colorado for the first time since the 1940's. A state biologist spotted wolf residents with three pups. There could be more as litters are usually four to six pups. The good news comes after Colorado residents voted to re-introduce the species to the state by 2023. Wolves still have protection in some states after loosing their federal endangered status under the previous anti-Nature regime. Hunting wolves in Colorado is illegal, but not so in MAGA states like Idaho, which recently passed legislation to slaughter up to a thousand wolves.

Officials confirmed a small pack living in the northwest part of the state last year after a number of sightings in 2019. The pack is believed to have moved from Yellowstone National Park where wolves were reintroduced in 1995. Called “ the ecological engines of the northern hemisphere,” the reintroduced wolves transformed the Park for the better significantly increasing biodiversity in a cascade effect. Ranchers and hunters in Colorado opposed the reintroduction effort but were outvoted; the vote was very close, the proposition winning by 50.4%. The cattle industry in the state is big business contributing $2.8 bn to the state's economy. There is a mechanism for livestock owners to be compensated for confirmed wolf predation.

Wolf reintroduction in Colorado is seen as an important step by conservationists to repopulating the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Mexico. Wolves occupy only a sliver of their historic range, which covered two-thirds of the continental US. About 3,000 now roam the western mountains and about 4,000 live in the upper Great Lakes. A small population of Mexican grey wolves remains federally protected in the southwest. A record twenty-two captive raised Mexican pups were placed in surrogate packs in the wild federal wildlife announced this week. [photo: Yellowstone wolf, credit Alamy]