A grey wolf that was discovered useless in Larimer County, Colorado, final month was almost definitely killed by a mountain lion, federal wildlife officers introduced this week. They primarily based their conclusion on necropsy outcomes, which confirmed puncture wounds within the wolf’s cranium that have been in line with a lion’s chunk, in line with U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Joe Szuszwalak.
“The reason for demise is trauma, in line with predation,” Szuszwalak tells Outside Life in an e mail. “Though not definitive, the puncture wounds within the cranium are in line with these sometimes inflicted by a mountain lion.”
Szuszwalak says the company is unable to supply every other particulars in regards to the wolf or the necropsy outcomes, as a remaining report has not been launched. (USFWS was additionally unable to supply photographs of the wolf upon request.)
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The useless wolf was first found on April 18, in line with CPW. Certainly one of 10 grey wolves that have been launched in Colorado in December as a part of a voter-approved reintroduction effort, it’s the first (and up to now, the one) reported demise among the many reintroduced wolves. USFWS has led the investigation, because the reintroduced inhabitants is federally protected underneath the Endangered Species Act.
Like each different grey wolf that was released in western Colorado between December 18 and 23, the wolf had been fitted with a GPS collar. These collars emit mortality indicators when the animal is stationary for a major time period, which is probably going how wildlife officers have been capable of finding it.
The GPS collars have additionally allowed the state company to maintain shut tabs on the wolves’ whereabouts and share that data with the general public by means of “activity maps” which are up to date month-to-month. Whereas it’s unclear precisely the place in Larimer County the wolf was discovered, the situation is critical as a result of the county lies on the northern fringe of Colorado’s closely populated Entrance Vary.
The ten wolves have been initially launched in Summit and Grand Counties, which lie west of the continental divide. By late April, roughly 4 months after the preliminary launch, CPW’s exercise map confirmed that at the least one of many wolves had entered Larimer County. This marked the first time that any of the wolves had crossed east of the continental divide.
Learn Subsequent: Cougars Are Killing Gray Wolves in Washington State
There’s a rising physique of proof from different states displaying that cougars usually prey on grey wolves. Wildlife officers with the Washington Division of Wildlife have confirmed at the least 4 separate cases of GPS-collared wolves being killed by mountain lions since 2013. Most often, the necropsy outcomes revealed distinct holes within the wolves’ skulls that have been in line with cougar bites. The company says it’s probably that different, comparable deaths have gone unreported in Washington and elsewhere.
“As a result of we typically don’t discover or get better carcasses from wolves that aren’t collared, we will’t make certain what number of different wolves have died in an analogous method,” WDFW biologist Trent Roussin defined in a 2022 article.