The Colorado Parks and Wildlife said the wolf, identified as #2305 — meaning it was one of the original 10 animals that came from Oregon — died on Jan. 28 in Routt County.

The wolf was the male of the breeding pair that produced the King Mountain pack last year.

The state obtained permission from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to perform the necropsy on the wolf. A statement from Colorado Parks and Wildlife said final results and lab tests from the necropsy are pending and will help determine if there were any underlying conditions that contributed to the wolf’s death.

According to CPW, staffers attempted to capture and collar some of the King Mountain pack, which consisted of a mating pair and four pups, due in part to low batteries in the collars of the mating pair. The adult female and one pup were successfully captured and collared during the operation.

According to a Friday statement by CPW, an independent third-party veterinary pathologist was in attendance for the necropsy and confirmed all exam results.

The autopsy suggested the wolf died from acute cardiogenic shock, possibly exacerbated by several different factors, including hyperthermia, exertional/capture myopathy, respiratory distress, or drug reaction.

After the wolf was captured, he was observed to be running a fever, and cooling measures were initiated. However, the wolf had no pulse and wasn’t breathing.

CPW staff spent 20 minutes trying to revive the wolf, using emergency drugs intended to increase the heart rate, to no avail.

CPW Director Laura Clellan said in a statement that her staff went through every detail, trying to find out why the male wolf died while the female of the mating pair had no issues.

“The evidence and facts within the reports still don’t definitively point to a specific reason why the male wolf experienced such a high level of distress,” she said. “We have a top-notch professional team, and this situation has been tough on everyone involved. I have the utmost confidence in our staff and we will continue to work hard to achieve our mandate of restoring a sustainable population of gray wolves in Colorado.”

Wolves in Colorado have killed more than five dozen calves, heifers, sheep and dogs since the wolf reintroduction program was launched with the release of the five Oregon wolves in December 2023. Some of the wolf depredations during that period occurred in Jackson County, where wolves migrated south from Wyoming.

Of the original 10 wolves from Oregon, five have now died. Another seven of the original 15 British Columbia wolves have also died.

A yearling wolf from the Copper Creek pack also died, shot by CPW staff after it killed multiple livestock. Another yearling was shot for the same reason, but according to the Fort Collins Coloradan, that wolf not only survived being shot in August but, as of October, was still killing livestock and evading capture by CPW.