PITKIN COUNTY, Colo. (KOAA) — One of the introduced Colorado gray wolves is responsible for a Pitkin County depredation on April 23, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s online database.
The CPW report said one calf was killed, and no claim has been submitted. It's the first kill of the wolf's biological year, which CPW will track from April 2026 to March 2027.
But this is the fourth depredation incident of the calendar year 2026. A cow was killed on Feb. 20 in Pitkin County. A dog was killed Feb. 7 in Jackson County, which stretches northwest of Steamboat Springs to the Wyoming border. 11 sheep were killed in a Jan. 24 depredation incident in Rio Blanco County, in northwest Colorado.
No claims have been submitted for any of the 2026 gray wolf depredation events. Claimants have 90 days to file paperwork for CPW payment unless they opt to delay until the end of the year.
According to CPW, the agency defines “Confirmed Wolf Depredation” as physical trauma resulting in injury or death. A “depredation event” is defined as a 24-hour period in which the Division determines by at least a preponderance of the evidence standard that a wolf or wolves caused physical trauma resulting in injury or death to a producer’s livestock or working dogs.
CPW payouts have exceeded expected funds recently. According to KOAA news partners at the Gazette, the CPW Commission approved more than $700,000 in wolf depredation claims for 2025 at its March meeting. That amount is more than double the state’s annual wolf compensation fund.
Colorado’s Wolf Depredation Compensation Fund only receives about $350,000 annually from the state’s general fund, but the state must cover all depredation losses regardless of cost.
The skyrocketing costs come as the state battles a massive budget deficit that it must balance with cuts to multiple other programs.
Colorado voters approved wolf reintroduction in 2020, and the effort began in 2023. Since then, the state has paid depredation claimants well over one million dollars.
The 2026 depredation events correspond to the most recent map showing the collared wolves' geographic activity from March 24 to April 21.
The map showed wolves sticking mostly to the western and northwestern parts of the state. CPW noted some wolves made broad movements, “while those in packs have developed territories and are displaying more localized movements.”
CPW announced last month that the maternal wolf of the King Mountain pack died on March 11. With that mortality, over half of Colorado’s 25 gray wolves brought to the state since reintroduction are dead.
The agency announced in January that it would not translocate any more gray wolves this season.
The move came after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent a cease and desist order to CPW in October 2025 to halt any capture and relocation of wolves from British Columbia, claiming it violated their state and federal agreement for Colorado’s reintroduction plans.
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow or message @brettforrestTV on X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
Brett can also communicate via encrypted apps like Signal. Due to the sensitive nature of ongoing reporting from federal actions, he is willing to take steps to protect identities.
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