For weeks, rumors have been flying that two of the Oregon wolves released into Grand County were showing signs that the female was about to, or had already, given birth.

It’s official — Colorado has its first confirmed gray wolf pup since voters approved reintroduction of the apex predators roughly four years ago.

On Thursday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed that the pup was sighted in Grand County during routine wolf monitoring efforts. That includes attempts to observe the wolves from the air and ground, as well as remote cameras and public sightings.

With the confirmation, the wildlife agency said the wolves are now officially considered a pack. The agency named the wolves the Copper Creek Pack.

The adult wolves are fitted with GPS collars, and wildlife officials said the female’s GPS points stopped uploading in early April and resumed later in April.

“The points for the female’s collar showed a very localized position,” CPW said on Thursday.

The agency’s biologists interpreted this to mean she was possibly in a den; hence, not in communication with the satellites.

Wildlife staffers began working to confirm the den and whether there were pups.

Last weekend, in a summit on wolves in Jackson County — where Wyoming wolves have been killing livestock for three years — staffers commented that the wolf pups would be about eight weeks old by now.

Wildlife officials also said they believe there could be more than one pup, given that female wolves typically give birth to an average of four to six per litter. Around half will make it to their first birthday.

“Although biologists were only able to confirm one pup at this time, it is possible that other pups may be present, as wolf litters commonly consist of four to six pups,” wildlife officials said in a news release.

Biologists said they used air and ground observations, remote cameras and public sightings to confirm the new pup. However, the state agency said there are no photos or videos of the pup yet.

Ranchers press Colorado wildlife officials for answers in daylong summit on wolves in North Park

The pups can disperse from the parents as soon as nine months, but most wait until between one and two years old, the state agency said. Once they disperse, they will form new packs with other young wolves or join an established pack.

The state agency previously said it will not collar the pups — but left unsaid is whether wildlife officers will collar once they reach maturity.

Officials also noted that pups are born in the spring, which “coincides with the time local ungulates give birth, enabling wolves to take advantage of easier prey.”

The prey wolves in Grand County are chasing have been calves, yearlings, sheep and working dogs, as well as any elk, moose, deer or other prey.

The state agency said it’s continuing to monitor the Copper Creek Pack and is working with nearby landowners to minimize potential conflicts.

“We are continuing to actively monitor this area, while exercising extreme caution to avoid inadvertently disturbing the adult wolves, this pup, or other pups,” CPW Wildlife Biologist Brenna Cassidy said in a news release.

The wolves’ reintroduction — and the ensuing depredation from both the new wolves and the old pair from Wyoming — have strained ranchers in Colorado to the point that some are dealing with the physical toll from stress and high blood pressure.

The two wolves that are believed to have reproduced have been identified by ranchers in Grand County as chronically depredating, and ranchers with Middle Park Stockgrowers and other livestock groups have been pleading with the state wildlife agency to allow the wolves to be lethally managed, given that they now seem to be relying on livestock for food, rather than “ungulates,” such as deer and elk. 

One rancher, Conway Farrell, has already lost at least six calves or yearlings to those two wolves in less than a month.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis has rejected those requests in letters to the stockgrowers, but the wildlife commission last week approved, as part of three permit processes tied to wolves, a 45-day permit for lethal management.

The question now is who will actually obtain those permits.

Ranchers have said they do not want to be the ones shooting wolves. Last weekend, ranchers told Davis and his staff they need to make those hard decisions.

Davis acknowledged last Saturday the broken trust between private landowners, including ranchers, and CPW leadership, caused by the agency’s lack of transparency in communicating about the Oregon wolves, as well as its refusal to deal with the problem wolves with anything other than non-lethal tools.

Davis said he hopes to earn back their trust: “I’m more sympathetic to what’s going on than it might appear from the letters.”

The CPW statement on Thursday said staff would “continue to work with landowners in the area to implement practices to minimize the potential for conflict.”

The pups grow quickly between five and 10 weeks, the wildlife agency said.

“In early or mid summer, pups are usually moved to an aboveground ‘rendezvous site,’ an area pups stay with access to resources like water and shelter. Wolves can use one or multiple rendezvous sites per year, depending on access to resources and level of disturbance,” the agency said. 

Reaction to the news has, not surprisingly, been mixed. 

Pro-wolf advocates, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, cheered the birth.

“It’s so exciting to be witnessing the early days of wolves’ return to Colorado, and my heart jumped for joy when I heard about the new wolf pup,” Alli Henderson, southern Rockies director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “With wolf families gone from Colorado for nearly a century, this pup’s arrival is a huge conservation milestone. Wolves belong here, and I’m so glad they’re back.”

“This confirmation of reproduction by two of the newly released gray wolves is truly exciting and marks a critical milestone of a successful reintroduction to the Southern Rockies,” Kaitie Schneider, rockies and plains representative at Defenders of Wildlife said in a statement. “As this pack grows, and the remaining wolves continue to search for mates and territory, we are committed to advancing and advocating for coexistence tools to help ensure we may all share this great landscape.”

On the other side, those who have been dealing with the slaughter of livestock from those wolves hold a different view.

Grand County Commissioner Merrit Linke, a rancher and vice-president of Middle Park Stockgrowers, told Colorado Politics: “We knew it all along because of the behavior and what we were witnessing.”

Dead cattle and high blood pressure: Wolf depredation takes toll on Colorado ranchers

Linke pointed to comments last weekend from Eric O’Dell of CPW, who said they would not collar those wolves.

“That will be a problem down the road when (the adults) teach them to hunt. Beef’s what’s for dinner and there are no consequences” for the wolves killing livestock, he said.