Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Thursday that one of the male wolves brought to Colorado in January from British Columbia has died.

The wolf was killed by staff associated with the US Department of Agriculture after it was suspected of killing five sheep in north-central Wyoming, according to a spokesperson for the department’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Tanya Espinosa, a public affairs specialist for APHIS, said that on March 15, USDA’s Wildlife Services responded to a sheep predation event on private lands in north central Wyoming.

“Evidence consistent with wolf depredation was observed at the site, including wolf tracks,  struggle sites, carcasses with premortem hemorrhaging, and bite marks consistent with known wolf predations.  In total, five adult sheep were killed by an adult wolf, including one sheep that was heavily fed upon.”

Later that day, “Wildlife Services removed (killed) a wolf at the predation location. Closer examination showed the wolf had a collar from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Wyoming Game and Fish returned the wolf and the collar to Colorado Parks and Wildlife,” Espinosa said.

According to a statement from CPW, their biologists received a “mortality alert” from north central Wyoming over the weekend.

That could be as much as 400 miles from where the wolves were relocated in January in Pitkin and Eagle counties.

The CPW statement, however, said that the British Columbia wolves came from areas “where there is no overlap between wolves and livestock.” 

The announcement comes while CPW investigates claims of new wolf depredations in Jackson and Pitkin counties, including from a wolf or wolves from the British Columbia group.

In Jackson County, the agency is looking into a claim that a wolf killed two dogs; in Pitkin County, in the Capitol Creek area near Aspen, another claim has surfaced of a wolf or wolves, likely from the British Columbia group, killed livestock over the weekend.

As to the Capitol Creek incident, a CPW spokesman told Colorado Politics this week, “It’s important to emphasize that even as an investigation is underway, CPW has team members working with the producer impacted, as well as surrounding producers, to identify and deploy non-lethal wolf-livestock conflict minimization measures. Area staff also inform local producers on an ongoing basis when wolves are spending time in an area, even when no depredations are under investigation.”

Colorado’s controversial wolf reintroduction program brought 10 wolves from Oregon in December 2023. Some of the wolves came from packs with a history of killing livestock, despite a pledge in the state wolf plan that such animals would not be considered for relocation.

Three months after the relocation, the wolves began killing livestock in Grand County, which has now led to compensation claims from two ranches of more than $581,000, well over the $350,000 available to cover those losses. The CPW Commission approved payouts of $340,000 earlier this month and is still considering another $120,000 in claims.

Two Oregon wolves formed a mating pair with at least four pups, now known as the Copper Creek pack. The male of the pack died shortly after an operation to capture it due to complaints about livestock killings, particularly by the male. The other four, including the female of the mating pair, have since been re-released into Eagle and Pitkin counties.

The male was believed to have died from a gunshot wound.

Two other wolves from the Oregon group also have died; one from a fight with another animal, the other from a gunshot wound, according to state wildlife officials.

In January, 15 wolves were brought to Colorado from British Columbia and relocated to Eagle and Pitkin counties.

State wolf maps show that wolves have traveled far beyond where they were initially located, including into watersheds that cross the state line into Utah. The wolf’s death in Wyoming is the first report of a Colorado wolf from the reintroduction program crossing into Wyoming.