Another Colorado Wolf Crosses into Wyoming — and Doesn’t Make It Back

For the third time this year, a wolf reintroduced to Colorado has crossed the border into Wyoming — and ended up dead.

The wolf, a female identified as 2304, had been part of the first group of wolves brought to Colorado from Oregon back in December 2023. Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) announced Wednesday that they were notified of her death on July 24, but details are still pretty scarce.

No info has been released about how or exactly where she died in Wyoming. Why? Wyoming law doesn’t allow it.

“Wyoming Game and Fish can only release aggregate numbers for legally taken wolves,” CPW explained in its statement.

Translation: if it was a legal kill, we’re not going to get specifics.

Wolves are protected under Colorado law, meaning no hunting allowed. But once they wander into certain parts of Wyoming — especially the area just north of the border — they’re fair game. In that region, wolves are classified as predatory animals, which basically means anyone can kill them anytime, no hunting tag needed.

This latest death brings the total to three Colorado-released wolves killed in Wyoming so far this year:

• In March, a male wolf was killed by USDA Wildlife Services after it reportedly attacked sheep.
• Another male was found dead in April, though no cause was shared.
• Now, in July, this female wolf from Oregon meets the same fate.

Wolf advocates in Colorado are calling this predictable — and tragic.

“These wolves are just doing what wolves do: they wander,” said John Michael Williams, who runs the Colorado Wolf Tracker Facebook page.

Williams pointed out that buffer zones built into CPW’s reintroduction strategy (which keep wolves at least 60 miles from state borders and tribal lands) don’t really matter to an animal that can easily roam over 1,000 miles, like one female did earlier this year.

In his words?

“We’re seeing these things trying to go home, which is kind of sad.”

The timing of the wolf’s death also comes just after a federal judge ruled that the US Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law by refusing to reconsider whether wolves should be placed back on the endangered species list.

That ruling came from US District Judge Donald Molloy in Montana, in response to a lawsuit from environmental and animal welfare groups. The case could lead to renewed federal protection for wolves in states like Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho — where hunting policies are currently much more aggressive.

Samanta Miller, a senior campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity (one of the groups that sued), told Cowboy State Daily that Colorado wolves dying in Wyoming backs up the need for that ruling.

“This validates the legal victory we just had,” she said. “Wyoming’s wolf policies are especially dangerous to Colorado’s efforts.”

For now, Colorado will keep tracking wolves, and Wyoming’s rules won’t likely change anytime soon — unless that federal ruling forces a shift. But for advocates like Williams and Miller, every wolf that crosses the line and doesn’t return is a stark reminder of how fragile reintroduction efforts can be.

“They’re just doing what they’ve always done,” Williams said. “But crossing that border can be a death sentence.”

The original story by Mark Heinz for Cowboy State Daily.