CPW Temporarily Suspends Gray Wolf Chronic Depredation Directive Amid Survival Concerns

Description: Colorado Parks and Wildlife temporarily suspended its gray wolf chronic depredation directive while evaluating wolf survival rates, population growth and future management actions...

CPW addresses current gray wolf survival rates, temporarily suspends the current chronic depredation directive, outlines efforts to address impacts

September 30, 2026

DENVER – After evaluating the current status of translocation efforts, survival rates of wolves in the state, and other biological factors, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is temporarily suspending its chronic depredation directive, which provides guidance for gray wolf lethal removals. CPW will evaluate any future removals of wolves on a case-by-case basis using a very conservative approach to address the concern that population growth may not occur this biological year, which ends March 31, 2027.

Population Counts and Survival Rates

The CPW team works tirelessly to monitor reproduction and recruitment through camera traps, staff observations of wolves, and other methods. Minimum population counts reflecting the number of wolves CPW can confirm are typically shared once per year when the Colorado Gray Wolf Annual Report is published in the spring. To address recent public concerns about the state’s wolf population, CPW is now sharing a mid-year population count, including pups born this year. 

Colorado is now home to four reproducing wolf packs, a fifth pack of four siblings that travel together, and several wolves that do not live in packs that could potentially pair this winter. Wolf program staff have identified breeding adults, other adults (if present), yearlings, and pups born in each of the packs and have detected 45 gray wolves as of September 24, 2026. This count includes a high count of 20 pups born in Colorado this year. Typical survival rates of pups range between 50-60% in western wolf populations, so this number will likely fall by the end of the biological year in March 2027. Pup survival in Colorado in 2025-2026 was high, with 82% of detected pups surviving their first year.

Adult survival during the last biological year (April 1, 2025 - March 31, 2026) was 61%, which is below the 75% survival rate more typical of an unharvested wolf population. Additionally, CPW staff biologists and veterinarians are investigating evidence of hair loss in multiple wolves in two packs in Northwest Colorado, which could be associated with an infectious skin parasite and, if so, could impact wolf survival. No final diagnosis has been confirmed at this time. The agency will share further details when the investigation is complete.

Human-Caused Mortalities and Management Actions

To address chronic depredation, the agency has lethally removed five wolves this biological year (April 1, 2026 - present) and is investigating one additional wolf mortality. 

The agency’s removal efforts were conducted under CPW’s statutory and regulatory authority as well as the agency’s current administrative directive concerning chronic depredation.

“Up to this point, CPW has carefully followed the adaptive management framework called for in the wolf plan, our chronic depredation directive, and has conducted the appropriate consultations in every action we have taken this season,” said CPW Director Laura Clellan. “Each decision to lethally remove a wolf is painstakingly evaluated and considered, and this option has only been pursued when all other viable options have been exhausted.”

Efforts to Address Population Challenges

Due to the challenges with the current population, and in alignment with the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan’s direction to use an adaptive approach to wolf management, CPW will evaluate additional requests for lethal removal on a more conservative basis. The Wolf Plan states that when evaluating the use of lethal control on a context-specific basis, CPW must consider the trade-offs among many competing factors, including “wolf reproductive and recruitment success, wolf population size and listing status.” The Plan also recognizes that CPW will monitor, and if necessary, adjust the extent of lethal removals to meet conservation and management needs, noting that “excessive levels of lethal removal can inhibit the recovery of wolf populations.” 

CPW will work with stakeholders to revisit its chronic depredation directive and the conditions under which removals may take place. Those revisions will be in place by April 1, 2027, and the start of the new wolf biological year in coordination with the release of the Gray Wolf Annual Report. In the interim, CPW staff will continue to work diligently with producers to deploy all reasonable non-lethal tools and methods. 

Concurrent with the suspension of the current chronic depredation directive, CPW commits to the following actions:

• CPW will continue to work with stakeholders on the two petitions concerning wolf depredation (Wolf damage compensation and Wolf chronic depredation petition) submitted to the Parks and Wildlife Commission.
• CPW will extend the range riding season in select locations based on conflict and producer willingness.
• CPW will continue to support livestock producers through non-lethal tools, technical assistance, site assessments and issuing Injurious Non-lethal Hazing (INLH) permits.
• CPW will continue to review Retroactive In The Act permit applications.
• CPW will continue to apply the standards of the current compensation regulations and ensure compensation for losses to wolves as defined within those regulations in a timely manner.
• CPW will continue to explore options for further translocations of wolves.

“We’re doing everything we can to meet our objective of a sustainable population while working with livestock producers and continuing to follow the adaptive guidance provided in the Wolf Restoration and Management Plan. Right now, we’re in a critical moment for wolf restoration in Colorado,” Director Clellan said.

“Our current genetic analysis demonstrates that the wolf population has high diversity, indicating that inbreeding is not a hurdle to wolf recovery,” Clellan said. “While this is promising news for the program, achieving a successful reintroduction effort and a self-sustaining population of wolves will require doing everything we can to ensure the survival of existing wolves in the state.” 

CPW also continues to explore options for future translocations with a goal of meeting the recommendations laid out in the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan (30-50 total translocated wolves over a 3-5-year period). This is the number experts agreed provided the best chance to establish a self-sustaining wolf population in Colorado, however, right now the agency must consider all options based on the current population.

“CPW is proud of the work that has been done in meeting the complex and challenging goals and requirements outlined in Proposition 114 to restore a self-sustaining population of gray wolves in the state,” Clellan said. “CPW staff have worked to resolve technical, social and political challenges with professionalism while balancing the diverse human interest groups impacted by wolf restoration. At this time, CPW is leading with the central tenets of sound, science-based wildlife management by looking first at the biological and population success of wolves.”

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