For Immediate Release: June 12, 2025
Contact:
Delaney Rudy, Western Watersheds Project, 970-648-4241, delaney@westernwatersheds.org
Chris Smith, WildEarth Guardians, 505-395-6177, csmith@wildearthguardians.org
Delia Malone, Wildlife Chair CO Sierra Club, 970-319-9498, deliamalone@earthlink.net
Norman A. Bishop 406 582-0597 nabishop32@gmail.com
Ryan Sedgeley, Endangered Species Coalition, 307-220-6084, resedgely@endangered.org
The new pups mark a significant step forward in achieving ecological balance in the state.
DENVER — Today, Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff confirmed sightings of new wolf pups in the state. These newly established wolf families significantly bolster the wolf population in the state and are markers of the success of the wolf reintroduction program.
Colorado has prepared diligently for the arrival of these new pups. CPW has contracted and trained 11 range riders for the summer season, and CPW staff have completed over 196 site assessments to help ranchers proactively implement appropriate strategies to secure their livestock. CPW has successfully deployed turbo fladry, range riders, night watches, and dozens of guard dogs around the state. These efforts are largely funded by the Born to be Wild license plate, which has raised at least $819,000 for non-lethal coexistence to date.
“We are elated to welcome these new wolf pups into the world and into our great state”, said Delaney Rudy, Colorado Director for the Western Watersheds Project. “The establishment of these wolf families is an exciting step toward restoring ecological balance in Colorado, and this rewilding will improve the health of the land, wildlife, and watersheds in our shared home in the Rocky Mountains.”
“To see Colorado’s wolf families grow is amazing and worth celebrating – congratulations to all who have made this possible,” said Chris Smith, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. “Progress has been slow and there will be fits and starts to any species’ recovery. But this is how restoration works.”
Wolves are highly social animals and their family bonds are incredibly strong, guiding their social and foraging behaviors. The founding of wolf families also leads to the establishment of distinct territories, which tends to reduce mortality in wolves and will make it easier for CPW and ranchers to know where and when nonlethal coexistence techniques can be deployed most effectively.
“With the birth of these wolf pups Colorado has a bright path to a sustainable future for our vast wildlands”, said Delia Malone, Wildlife Chair of Colorado Sierra Club. “A future where native carnivores can again play their essential role on life’s stage in restoring the connections that create resilient ecosystems with all their biodiversity. A future marked by coexistence that enables a restorative relationship with the natural world”.
“In the following passage from John Vucetich’s 2023 book, Restoring the Balance, he wrote: ‘The health of ecosystems inhabited by large herbivores depends on the cascading trophic effects of predation”’, cited Norman Bishop, a member of the team that restored wolves to Yellowstone, “Wolves select and remove old, sick, and unfit prey, lowering the impact of crowded grazers on limited forage, and on gravid females. In the process, they provide a regular supply of carrion that supports a myriad of scavenging mammals and birds, and hundreds of beetles. No other carnivore feeds as many other creatures as wolves do.”
Wolves also improve the health of waterways and ecosystems by redistributing the grazing pressure of herbivores. In their natural role, wolves facilitate the recovery of riparian vegetation, healing eroded waterways and improving habitat for a myriad of wildlife, including fish and beavers. Their presence on the landscape can even make humans safer, reducing elk and deer collisions with cars.
“These pups represent the hopeful future of this endangered species. They also represent the promise of a new way of living in Colorado, where we respect and treasure wildlife, like wolves, and take care of our people in the process,” says Ryan Sedgeley, Southern Rockies Representative for the Endangered Species Coalition. “The results of the Born to be Wild license plate are proof of this. We really can build a future where wolf families and human families share the same beautiful state we both love.”
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