Tragedy at the Border: Historic Colorado Wolves Lured to Death in Wyoming
In the vast expanse where the Colorado-Wyoming state line blurs into the rugged wilderness, a haunting saga unfolded in May 2019, forever altering the course of the region's ecological narrative. The stage was set when the echoes of a recorded pronghorn's distress call lured hunters into the clandestine territory. Little did they know, their actions would unravel a story of apex predators, borderland struggles, and the uneasy dance between man and nature.
The first act took place on that fateful Saturday, with an electronic call drawing a lone male wolf within 243 yards. The hunters, equipped with a 7 mm Shooting Times Westerner, knew exactly what they were targeting. It wasn't a mistaken shot; it was a deliberate act, marking the end of the first documented wolf pack in Colorado since the 1940s.
As the hunters shared their accounts anonymously with WyoFile, it became clear that this was just the beginning. In the following year, the outfitter and his son continued their pursuit of wolves. May 5, 2020, witnessed a tragic déjà vu, with the son drawing in a wolf using audio of a distressed cow elk, firing a fatal shot at a distance of 75 yards. The following day, near the state line, the duo encountered another wolf. Shots rang out, and one more life was extinguished. The agents' investigative summaries revealed moments of uncertainty about state boundaries, hinting at the complexities of enforcing wildlife laws in this vast and challenging terrain.
The hunters' pursuit extended beyond state lines, continuing in a calculated effort to lure wolves with electronic calls. Their attempts, however, resulted in encounters with other species but no more wolves. The hunters, opposed to wolf reintroduction, viewed their actions pragmatically, a means to engage in a pursuit that wouldn't "cost a fortune."
WyoFile's acquisition of documents through a Freedom of Information Act request exposed the details of these incidents, offering a rare glimpse into the challenges posed by the predator management zone in Wyoming. The dichotomy between the regulated environment in Colorado and the lax restrictions in Wyoming highlighted the complexities of wolf conservation.
The epilogue of this tragic tale casts a somber shadow. The trophies of these fallen wolves, skinned and tanned, now hang in the corner of a storage room – remnants of a narrative that raises poignant questions about the coexistence of humans and wildlife, the challenges of cross-border wildlife management, and the unavoidable cost of this uneasy dance between man and nature on the wild borderlands of Colorado and Wyoming.